Alls fair in Love and War,and Matchmaking
by Midnight Filly
Summary: When two enemies join forces to get their friends together, Sirius behaves like a mule, James has competition for the role Of Gryffindor Quiddich Captain and Lily is avoiding him at all costs. You can bet that it will involve Love, War and Matchmaking.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own this story and probably never ever will. But I can still have fun writing about the characters.**

The wheels of her trolley creaked slightly as Lily Evans pushed her luggage along the sidewalk at King Cross station.

A strand of auburn hair fell across her face and she blew it back impatiently.

She sighed as she came closer to platform 9 ¾. She couldn't wait to start the new year.

She was finally in her fith year at Hogwarts. She couldn't wait to tell her friends in person that she had become a prefect. All of her hard work had finally paid off.

This year was going to be great. She had great friends, help with transfiguration, and was a prefect. She was even looking forward to the OWL's later in the year.

There was only one thing that she could think of about the year.

"Lily sweetie, we're going to go now. We need to take Petunia to get the rest of her school supplies"

Lily nodded at her mother and glanced at her sister. She was a thin, bony girl with a sour expression and a face a bit like a horse; actually, horses were much better looking than her sister.

Lily had always joked about how she had inherited the looks in the family, but as Petunia grew she could see that it was definitely true.

She had once been great friends with her sister. They had always played together and had fun. The only thing that they had disagreed on was magic. Lily had a great imagination while Petunia…was completely unimaginative.

Petunia had hated anything to do with magic all of her life. Lily didn't know how it had started. One year when Lily was three and Petunia was four they had both gotten a magical unicorn playset.

Petunia had been so mad that she had ripped the horn off.

Ever since they had found out that Lily was a witch Petunia had suddenly hated her. She was mostly scared of her, but Lily wished that she wasn't and they could go back to being friends.

"Goodbye Petunia" Lily gave her sister a small smile. Petunia stared at a spot above Lily's head "See ya Lily" she muttered then whirled around and stormed off.

Lily hugged her mother and father goodbye then continued walking to the station.

She came to a wall between platforms 9 and 10 and casually leant against it. A girl her age with dark braids and brown eyes come up to her. "Hi Lily" she smiled Lily smile at the girl "Hey Penny" Penny leant against the wall next to her.

"So, do you think that the OWL's this year are going to be tough?" Lily asked as they sunk through the wall. Penny smiled and nodded "Yeah, otherwise the teaches wouldn't have been going on about them the past year" Lily laughed and pushed her trolley over to the train "Yeah, I'm not sure that I can handle all of the pressure".

"Sure you can, you're one of the best witches in the year"

Penny waved and walked over to her friend, Alice. Lily looked around a little to try and find one of her friends.

"Lilllllyyyyyyyyy!" a voice squealed. Lily turned and smiled, she caught a glimpse of her friend before she was engulfed in chocolate brown hair.

Lily laughed and pushed her friend away "Molly I can't breathe!" she complained.

Molly grinned at her, her smooth shoulder length hair shining in the light from the train. "Sorry! I'm just so glad to see you!"

They started to make their way over to the train. "Oh, guess what. Paul Patil has started dating Rina Menory!" Molly squeaked.

Lily sighed. They hadn't even boarded the train yet and Paul had already found a new girlfriend "I was talking to Penny Patil before, she just got here." Lily commented.

Molly shrugged and heaved her trunk onto the train. Lily did the same.

"So guess who was made the Gryffindor female prefect?" Lily asked grinning.

Molly jumped up and down a couple of times waving her arm in the air "Oh, oh. You, right?"

Lily nodded "yup, I can't wait to tell the others. I'll make a quick stop to say hi to them before I got to the prefect compartment"

Molly nodded and they came onto the train. They walked along, looking for the compartment that their friends were in.

They came to a large group of people who were blocking the way to the last few compartments.

Lily sighed in annoyance "Okay, who has the strange new magical creature this time?"

Molly peered over the mass of students then giggled "A certain dark haired quiddich star is showing off his new broomstick"

Lily groaned "Ugh, who cares! I just want to get through!"

A tall, dark haired figure emerged from the crowd "Did I hear the cry of a damsel in distress?"

Lily glared at him "No, Potter, you did not. Now just let me through" She impatiently pushed past him and struggled through the thick crowd.

He grinned at her "Okay everybody, let the girl through" The crowd of people stood back to let Lily and Molly past. James followed them, and then blocked their path.

"So Evans, am I going to have more luck with winning your heart this year?"

A boy with black hair that was hanging over his eyes walked over to them "Prongs, you know that the answers gonna be no, so why don't you just give up?"

The boy nodded to Lily and Molly "Evans, White"

Molly blushed slightly "Hey Sirius" she mumbled. Lily just nodded at him "Black".

James sighed "Padfoot, Padfoot, Padfoot, I have matured nicely over the holidays, and am sure that a fine young lady such as Lily will notice".

Lily glared at him "No". James raised his eyebrows "Wow, just no? Usually I at least get a 'no way'"

Sirius just laughed and went back to talking to the adoring crowd.

Lily smirked at James "Maby you're loosing your touch" James frowned "I might be" he turned to Molly.

"How's it going Molly?" Molly blushed and giggled "Great, thanks"

James turned back to Lily grinning triumphantly "Nope, still got it"

With that, he turned and went back to his adoring crowd. "As I was saying. The Shooting star is a fantastic broom, as you can see it has a nice tilt of the tail to help keep the broom balanced…

Lily and Molly continued down the hall. "Thanks a lot" Lily grumbled.

Molly smiled meekly "Sorry, I just can't help it, he's so…so…perfect!"

Lily groaned "Nobody's perfect Molly, especially not Potter"

They came to one of the last compartments and went inside.

Two girls were sitting on the plush seats there. One had olive skin and dark brown hair, tied up in a high ponytail; the other had lighter skin and messy dark blonde hair that fell to her waist.

The blonde was sitting slumped in her seat, glaring at the wall of the compartment so hard that she was starting to form a hole.

The other girl was reading some sporting magazine.

Molly rushed in and plonked her bags down. "Hi guys! It's so good to finally see you again!"

The dark haired girl looked up and smiled "Hey, guys. Good to see you too. Can you try to get Amber to do something other than stare at the wall? "

The blonde just grunted. Lily raised her eyebrows and looked at her "Amber, I really don't want to have a huge hole in the wall, it will make us easier to eavesdrop on".

Amber blinked and looked up, then glanced guiltily at the wall "Ooops, that may be an issue". She pointed her want at the wall "Reparo" The she slumped back down in her seat.

"He just makes me so mad!" she exclaimed.

Lily nodded, glad that someone felt the same way about James. "I know, he's such a jerk! Out there, showing off his flashy new broomstick" she winced slightly, remembering that only last year Tia had been doing the same.

Amber looked up again, surprised "He's here? What is he doing here?" Lily frowned at her friend "Uhhhhh, maybe because, he goes to school here?"

"What! No he doesn't!" Amber exclaimed. Lily blinked "Who are you talking about?" Amber frowned "Who are you talking about?"

"James, who else?" Lily asked. Amber laughed "My dad".

"Ohhhhhh" Lily nodded. Amber had a thing about her father. She hated him. Ever since her mother had died Amber and her dad had been constantly fighting.

He was a muggle and wanted Amber and her sister, Opal to start going to a muggle school. Unfortunately for him, they weren't so enthusiastic about the idea.

"Just wait till you here what he's done this time" Amber growled.

The dark girl looked up, interested "James has a new broom?" Lily sighed "I guess you want to go and gape over it now Tia?"

Tia shook her head "No, what model?"

"Uhhhhh, a Shooting star" Molly recalled. Tia waved her hand dismissively. "Ha, he's still trying to top my Phoenix 260. But the shooting star will never be in the same league as the Phoenix's"

Lily smiled to herself; Tia was on the Gryffindor quiddich team along with James. She was a complete sports freak. She and James were almost friends, Alough they were constantly competing over who was the best.

Molly cut her off "Lily, don't you have to go to you prefect meeting?" Lily blinked "Oh, yes, I do. Tell me later Amb"

As she hurried out of the compartment she could hear Amber saying "Prefect? Oh great, now how am I supposed to have fun without getting into trouble?"

Lily smiled to herself and hurried into the Prefect compartment, by now the train had started moving, so it took her a while to move smoothly without tripping over.

She opened the door to the prefect compartment. Most of the other prefects were already there.

Lily looked around the room. Alice Lontree and Paul Patil (Penny's brother) were there for Ravenclaw and Hestia Jones and Mark Gordon for Hufflepuff.

Neither of the Slytherins were there yet and the other Gryffindor person was…

"Remus?" Lily asked in surprise

"How could you…I mean…" "How could I become a prefect?" Remus asked lightly.

Lily blushed. Remus was part of James's group, a Marauder. He was the most responsible of them though, and they were the smartest kids in the year (Except Peter) so it was probably a good choice.

"I'm sorry, I just, well, was surprised" she mumbled, embarrassed. Remus waved a hand "Don't worry about it. So who do you think will be Slytherins prefects?"

Alice leant forward so that she could speak to them "Probably that Malfoy loser"

Just as she said this, Lucius Malfoy happened to be walking into the compartment.

"What did you say about me?" He asked, glaring at Alice.

"That you are a loser" Alice said, standing up and raising her chin.

Lucius looked down on her warily, trying to decide if he should hex her or not, even though Alice was about a head shorter than him, she was incredibly powerful.

He slowly sat down, opposite Paul and looked around at the rest of the students.

The compartment door opened again and a tall, dark haired girl with heavy eyelids and a regal air entered.

Lucius nodded to her "Bella" Lily had to stop herself from groaning as Bellatrix sat down in her seat, looking like she was sitting in a throne.

She was Sirius's cousin, and, if given a choice, Lily would rather spend an hour with him than a minute with her. Of coarse she would never actually admit that out loud.

The compartment door opened again, and a tall boy walked in.

Everybody stopped talking and looked at him. He had incredibly scruffy, even worse than James's, dark brown hair and black, eagle like eyes. There was a somewhat menacing look about him.

He scanned the crowd of prefects then spoke "As some of you may know, some of you may not; I am Alastor Moody, your head boy. I will brief you on your assignment as soon as the head girl gets here. As from now she is"

He glanced down at his wrist where a strange watch was that had stars and planets circling in it. "Two minutes late. I'll hope that you will not follow her bad example and are prompt to arrive at every meeting"

Lily glanced at the others surprised; this guy definitely took his job seriously.

The door was flung open and a slim, blonde girl rushed in. Her face was flushed and her hazel eyes were wide.

She flopped down onto the seat closest to the door.

"I'm…sorry that…I'm a little…late" she panted. "Just…remembered that I was...head girl"

Alastors face hardened "you are now two and a half minutes late! So far you are setting a terrible example"

The girl rolled her eyes "you're just mad that I have more responsibility than you." She turned to the prefects "Hi, I'm Melanie Chance, Your head girl. Some of you may know me as Captain of the Gryffindor Quiddich team.

Lily relaxed slightly. She knew Melanie from all the times that she had gone to quiddich practice with Tia.

Melanie was much more relaxed and friendly than this Alastor.

"So, just patrol the halls and look out for people causing trouble" Melanie started.

Lily grinned; she knew just where to find four troublemakers.

"You can give detentions, but not add or subtract house points" Melanie raised her eyebrows and looked at Alastor.

"Is that all Moody?" she asked innocently.

He muttered something and stood up straighter "You must take your new positions very seriously, the order of the train must be perfect at all times, you must be under constant surveillance!"

With that he turned and walked out of the compartment.

"Don't mind him" Melanie sprung up "Now, I'll give you the passwords to your common room and dorms and you can be on your way"

She started going to the students and handing them each a different coloured slip of paper.

She came over to Lily and Remus last "Okay you guys, here ya go" she handed them each a crimson piece of paper with the word 'Newts eyes' written on it.

Melanie was shaking her head "And Alastor says I'm not organised" she scoffed. Lily smiled at her "I think that the crimson paper is a nice touch"

Melanie leant in and lowered her voice "I had to colour code them so that I wouldn't forget which one was which.

She leant back and brushed her long hair behind her ear "Oh, and can you guys tell Tia and James to be on extra good behaviour this year" Melanie asked "I'm in my seventh year and looking for a new captain and it's definitely between those two"

She smiled and left the carriage.

Remus got up and held the door open for Lily "This will be interesting" he commented.

Lily raised her eyebrows "What?" He grinned "Seeing Tia and James trying to be the more perfect quiddich player" Lily nodded

"Definitely amusing" she waved goodbye and went into her compartment. Her friends were still talking about broomsticks.

"I still don't see the difference between a Sparrow 340 and a Soaring Moon?" Molly was saying.

Tia rolled her eyes "Its Phoenix-" "Ooooh, Miss Perfect is back" Amber cut in, looking at Lily.

Lily grinned at her friend "Its Prefect as you very well know Amb, I'm glad to see that your mood has disappeared"

Amber grinned and held up a packet "Bertie Botts every flavour beans always help!" she popped one into her mouth. Lily shook her head; Amber had a strange fixation with jelly beans.

Lily shook her head "So tell me, why are you so mad at you father?"

Amber took a deep breath. "Well, you know how he always tries to stop me from coming to Hogwarts?"

They all nodded. "Well he's started blackmailing me now! First he just asked, then he tried bribery, now blackmail" her voice rose. Lily quickly cast a soundproof spell on the compartment.

"WHAT KIND OF PERSON BLACKMAILS THEIR POOR INNOCENT DAUTER I ASK YOU, WHAT!" Amber started screaming.

Lily waved a hand in front of her face. "Amb, calm down" she soothed. Tia picked up the packet of jelly beans and shoved them into Amber's mouth.

Amber took a deep breath and continued.

"Well, first he said that Opal wasn't going no matter what, and if I wanted to stay with her then I better stay too. Fortunately she won the fight to come.

Then he said that he wouldn't give me any money for school supplies, I just used the money that mum left me.

Then he used a threat that actually worked" Her face darkened and Lily, Molly and Tia edged away nervously, Amber was known for having strong feelings and accidentally blowing things up when she got mad.

"He threatened to turn Amigo into dog food if I left!" Lily gave a small gasp. Amigo was Amber's horse and the only thing she cared about as much as Opal.

Her mother had raised him from a foal and then given him to Amber and taught her about animals.

Lily guessed that he knew how important he was to Amber. "So, Amigo's…dog food?" Lily asked softly.

Amber laughed "Do you really think that I'd let that happen to him?" Molly looked confused "So, your not really here?" she asked.

Tia reached over and poked Amber "Ouch, what was that for!" Amber exclaimed.

Tia smiled at Molly "She's really here".

"So…where exactly is Amigo?" Lily asked.

Amber glanced around then reached into her bag and pulled out a small cardboard box.

Molly gasped "You turned him into a box!"

Amber rolled her eye's "No, you know that I'm hopeless at Transfiguration, I am however quite talented at charms" with that, she opened the box and pulled out a small model of a patched brown and white horse.

At least, Lily thought it was a model…until it started moving. And neighing. Loudly.

"Amber!" Lily exclaimed loudly. Amber looked at her innocently "Well I couldn't leave him, and there was no way that I would stay"

Amber carefully put the horse back into the box and shoved it into her bag.

Lily just shook her head. Yes, this year was going to be great. Having some strange new secret to deal with always made life more fun.

The only thing that was going wrong this year was… "Hey Lily, what a coincidence that we're in the compartment next to you!"

Lily groaned. she had grown to hate that voice.

Tia rose her eyebrows at him "Wow James, it took you a while to come here!"

"Yeah, usually you come as soon as we get on the train!" Amber noted.

"Yeah, well Sirius insisted on saying 'hi' to Cassandra before we came" James grinned at his friend.

Amber looked at him in mock wonder "Wow, Cassandra is your new victim?" she snorted

"You two deserve each other"

"I thought that you hated Cassandra?" Molly asked. Everyone stared at her for a second

"Oh, right, you were saying that they deserve each other because you hate Cassandra and Sirius…right"

Amber rolled her eyes "You will probably only last a day anyway"

Sirius laughed "Oh look who's talking Nightingale, you only lasted about an hour when you went out with Paul Patil"

Amber face darkened and Lily bit her lip. An hour after Amber had started dating Paul she had received news that her mother had died.

Her father hadn't wanted to 'traumatise' her so he had burnt her mothers body before she could come and say goodbye.

Amber had immediately withdrawn from life. She had stopped taking care of Amigo, ignored her friends and started dropping in all of her classes.

She and her mother had been very close and she had never really gotten on with her father.

Her life was back on track now but it was still a sore subject. That combined with the fact that she really hated her last name was too much.

She pulled out her wand and pointed it at him.

"Take it back" She growled.

He just laughed. "Make me" he mocked.

There was a flash of smoky green light and Sirius was shot out of the compartment.

The other Marauders rushed out after him.

Amber walked over to the Compartment door and yelled out "When the trolley lady comes you might want to get some carrots"

Then she shut the door and went back to her seat cackling in an evil way.

Lily turned to her, suspicious "Amber, what did you do to him?"

Amber smiled sweetly "Oh, nothing"

"Sirius?" James asked, cautiously prodding his friend.

"Padfoot, are you…okay?" Sirius just let out a loud moan.

"I told you not to bring that up" Remus shook his head.

"If you had any sense and listened to me you would know that her mother died then. It was a very painful time for her"

Peter stared at him in wonder "How do you know all this?"

Remus just sighed "It was obvious, she stopped talking to anyone, her grades dropped, and she stopped taunting Sirius. Then I asked Tia and she said that her mother had died"

"How awful-" Peter started. Sirius let out another moan.

They all turned and looked at him. "Do any of you care that I feel like my insides are rearranging themselves?" he asked.

Remus sighed "I'll go and get my book" He went off to find the book he used to fix his friends when they had been meddling with Lily and Amber, and sometimes Tia.

James gazed at the compartment "Do you think that she's warming up to me?" He asked hopefully.

Peter shook his head "Sorry Prongs, but she's as cold as ever. Maby if you tried to be more like Remus-"

"-What has Remus got to do with it?" "Well she's sort of friends with him isn't-"

He was cut-off by a yell from Sirius.

They both turned and their mouth's dropped. Little brown hairs were pricking through his skin and starting to grow. His ears were growing up and his mouth and nose were joining together and growing out.

He leapt up in surprise. His legs started to shrink and his arms started to grow and he was forced onto all fours.

His hands and feet started to grow hard and heavy.

James and Peter stood and stared. Where Sirius had been afew moments before was now…well it looked a bit like a donkey.

"Aaaaah! I'm a donkey!" the thing cried and sunk down wailing that he couldn't be a donkey.

Peter cocked his head at him "Actually I think that you're a horse"

James shook his head "No way, horses have those mane things"

"Like a lion?" Peter asked "No, more a…a-"

"-What on earth happened to you?" Remus asked, coming up and dropping his book.

"I'm a donkey!" Sirius wailed. Peter shook his head "Horse!"

Remus just shook his head then dropped onto the floor "Soooo…would you say that this is a curse, a hex or a jinks?"

James observed Sirius thoughtfully "A…curse, I think"

"Or maybe a jinks?" Peter added tentatively.

Sirius let out a groan that sounded like a donkey bray.

About half an hour later

"Hmmm, you've seemed to give his coat a shinier gleam, nice, but not really what we're looking for" James commented, observing Sirius.

Remus sighed and let the book drop to the ground "I have no idea; I've tried practically everything I can think of"

James was pacing in front of the girls compartment, Remus was sitting in front of Sirius flicking through his book and Peter was patting a very shiny, black, donkey-like Sirius and feeding him apples and carrots.

"Knowing Nightingale she's made it so that only she knows how to turn me back" Sirius said through a mouthful of carrot.

"Hey, Peter, can you pass me that piece of apple?" Peter picked up the apple and Sirius devoured it.

Remus saw a familiar figure coming towards them.

At first he thought that it was Amber, but then he realised that it was her sister Opal.

She looked a lot like Amber, with her long dark blonde hair and olive green eyes. Except that her hair was straighter and neater than Ambers and her hair and eyes were darker.

"Opal, can we have a littler help here?" The girl looked up, startled.

"Oh, um, yes, what do you want?" She asked cautiously.

Remus just pointed to Sirius.

Opal smiled "You would not believe how many times I have been turned into a mule"

She took out her wand.

"A mule?" James asked, confused. Opal nodded "Yeah, that's what he is, what, did you think he was a donkey or something?" She said with a laugh.

"Err, no, heh, donkey" James stammered.

Opal waved her wand and murmured a spell.

Sirius slowly started turning back into a human.

"Thanks Opal!" He exclaimed when he had finally turned back.

"I might have been a-Oooh, are those carrots?" he asked, lunging towards the small pile.

Opal watched, a small smile on her face "Oh, and did I mention that he would have the appetite of a mule for a week?" she added.

James smiled "Let's see about that" he grabbed a bar of chocolate from his bag and waved it in front of Sirius's face.

Sirius stared at it blankly "Ugh, what is that?" he asked disgustedly.

James opened it and gave it to him "Chocolate, only your favourite thing in the world" Sirius took a small bite, and then spat it out "Yuck!"

Peter picked up a sugar cube from his stash "Hey Sirius" he called.

Sirius turned then lunged at him "Gimme that!"

Peter tossed it to James who laughed and ran off with it, Sirius close behind him.

Peter ran after them and he and James started tossing the cube between them.

"Guys, guys, please, I'm begging you! I _need_ that"

Opal shook her head and turned to Remus "You really should be more careful" She said, strolling off.

**A/N. Sigh. I am so glad that I finally finished that. I've read it over about five times, so if there are any mistakes I am going to scream! I hope you liked the start of my new story. I know that I haven't finished my other stories yet but I needed a break from them. Don't worry; I will finish them…eventually. I'm probably going to work on 'When the moon is full' first since 'Blood is thicker than water-most of the time' is just really a side story. Please review! I want to know what you think of the story, yes you! Oh, and for those of you wondering, a mule is a donkey crossed with a horse. Their really cute! I couldn't decide whether to turn Sirius into a donkey or a horse, so I decided on both! **


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own this story and probably never ever will. But I can still have fun writing about the characters.**

Lily tugged her bag and let it drop onto the side walk.

Amber, Molly and Tia followed her. Amber was looking slightly peeved.

"Whats wrong now?" Tia sighed at her friend. Amber folded her arms.

"That's what's wrong!" She grumbled pointing to Sirius.

They all turned and looked. Surely enough Sirius was no longer a mule. He was just jumping around happily with James and Peter while Remus watched.

"Only two other people apart from me know the cure to that spell, and one of them couldn't have done it" Amber muttered darkly.

"Opal!" she called out.

Opal appeared from the crowd "you called?" she smiled sweetly.

With her was a pretty girl with wavy black hair and big silver eyes.

"Hi Kitty" Lily smiled at the girl. Kitty was Remus's younger sister; she was in the same grade as Opal.

Kitty smiled "Hey" she gave a snort of laughter.

"Good job on the mule charm Amber, Sirius is still craving Carrots and apples"

They all looked over and saw that James and Peter were tossing a sugar cube between them and laughing as Sirius desperately leapt after it.

Amber just shook her head "Opal why did you have to give them the counter charm? I wanted Cassandra May to see her great new boyfriend as a mule!"

Opal blushed deep red "I-I well, Remus asked, and I-" Kitty and Amber both groaned.

"Please tell me that you don't still have that stupid crush on my brother, even after all the things I have told you about him?" Kitty asked.

Opal blushed even deeper "I can't help it he's just so-"

"Do not finish that sentence" Amber commanded.

Molly twirled a strand of hair on her finger "Whats wrong with a crush, she can't help it"

Lily looked at her dryly "Molly you have a crush on practically every guy at the school"

Molly sighed "Yeah, but do I have anything to show from it, no!"

Kitty just shook her head and dragged Opal off saying "Okay, well there was that time when he first tried to ride a broomstick, ha! Oh, I still remember it clearly; I still have a tape somewhere…"

Tia looked over at the Marauders, who were still tossing around the sugar cube.

"Do you think that maybe we should take pity on Sirius and tell the others what he has to eat in the next week?"

The others all tuned and raised their eyebrows at her.

"What! I also want to see how serious James is about the Quiddich Captain role" She sighed dreamily, thinking about being able to tell the other players what to do, and controlling the training sessions and…

A hand being waved in her face interrupted her thoughts "Okay, we've lost her" Amber said, grabbing Tia's sholders and shaking them roughly.

Tia laughed; "Okay I'm going" She started walking in the boy's direction.

Amber followed "I better go so that I can tell Black what the proper diet for a mule is" she gave another evil cackle.

"He will never look at Mules the same way again!"

Lily rolled her eyes "I'll stay here; I don't want James thinking that I would voluntarily go and see him"

Molly looked at her pleadingly "Please come, if you go then I have an excuse to go!"

Lily frowned slightly at the logic, trying to get it to process in her head. "Molly, you know that James will go on about how much I want to see him by coming over" Molly just frowned, looking slightly hurt.

"Yeah, well at least somebody likes you" Molly muttered.

Lily sighed "Fine I'll go" Molly went back to being her usual bouncy self "Really? Cool!"

She said skipping off.

Amber and Tia approached the boys, Molly ran up next to them and Lily followed glumly.

Tia walked up to James and waved a hand in his face. "Helloooo, Jamsie" she said

He ducked past her, she was almost as tall as him and he needed to see what he was doing.

Tia sighed impatiently and snatched the sugar cube out of their reach; she was the best chaser in the Gryffindor team and had good reflexes.

She handed the cube to Sirius then turned to James.

Sirius looked down at the sugar cube, a faint tinge of red on his face. Lily guessed that he was wondering why he had been so desperate for on little bit of sugar.

He gulped it down and licked his lips, then started searching for more treats.

"…And so basically that adds up to five bowls of some sort of cereal with some sweetener or something and a couple of treats throughout the day" Amber was telling Remus and Peter.

"Don't give him the treat until he behaves, otherwise he will expect them and may get a nasty nipping habit"

Remus and Peter started laughing until she frowned at them. Remus looked up in slight shock "Oh, your serious"

She nodded "He wasn't supposed to turn back until a week later, but thanks to you" she gave Remus an accusing look and he wondered how it was his fault this time. "He turned back, so now he's gonna behave like a mule for a week"

She grinned at the thought "This week is going to be great!" she had another thought "Oh, and you might want to put some straw on his bed, he will probably find it easier to sleep, and don't be alarmed if he falls asleep standing up"

Remus blinked, a little overwhelmed "Maybe I should get a book out on how to take care of mules from the library.

Peter however looked ecstatic "It will be like having a pet for a week!" He exclaimed.

"Hmmm, a very ugly pet" Amber mused.

They all looked at Sirius for a reaction; he seemed to just be staring into space.

"Right Sirius?" she asked. Sirius snapped out of his daze "Huh? Oh, yeah, right"

Amber snickered and Remus frowned slightly, Peter went over to him and started patting his head.

"This week is going to be so great!" He exclaimed. Sirius blinked confused.

Meanwhile the others were talking about quiddich.

"I think that I will make a very fitting captain, don't worry Longwell. I may let you give me some suggestions from time to time"

Tia snorted "Yeah, sure, you mean you will be begging me for my excellent ideas. Besides, what makes you think that you will become captain?"

He swept his hair back, making it seem windblown. Lily looked at him in disgust. How big headed could you get?

She glanced guiltily at Tia's hair, noting that her friend had been complaining about how she hadn't been on her broom for ages, and yet her hair was also looking windswept.

James just laughed "I am obviously the better player, as seeker I manage to win us every match. Also, I'm much more charming than you"

Tia raised her eyebrows "Oh, well what about the times that the other seeker catches the snitch, who wins the match then?"

Lily sighed and let her attention wander. She noticed that Molly was hanging on every word James and Tia said. Lily rolled her eyes. She never knew why Molly was so interested in quiddich, probably all the cute guys who played it.

Amber came over to Molly "I need a hand with something" she muttered. They went around to the other side of the train, leaving Tia to finish her argument.

Amber pulled the small box that she was keeping Amigo in out of her pocket.

She carefully took the disgruntled horse out and held him in her palm.

"Okay, well I decided that Amigo will be too hard to keep track of this size and I can't keep him as a horse. Soooo" she smiled sweetly at Molly.

"I don't trust my poor transfiguration skills on my precious horsie, so would you, as my dear friend, help me and…well, turn him into an owl?"

Lily blinked "Amber, turning a horse into an owl is so much harder than anything else we've done before!"

"Well, yeah, but Molly was the only one that could turn a teapot into a dove that didn't still have a flowery pattern or breath steam or" she grinned sheepishly at this "Turn it into a wombat"

Lily laughed at the memory "I will never know how you confused dove with wombat" she grinned.

Molly carefully picked up Amigo "I'll try" she murmured. Lily tapped him and turned him to his original size.

Amigo seemed happy at this and raised his head then whinnied.

Amber clapped a hand over his mouth "Shhhhhhh" she warned him.

Molly took a deep breath then pointed her wand at the horse "Olorial" she said, waiving her wand over him in a sweeping motion.

Amigo started to shrink again.

His fur started to become feathers and his muzzle became a beak.

Soon they were looking at a very odd owl. He was white with brown splotched feathers. Along his neck was an extra furry brown strip of feathers that ad once been his mane. There was also something horsish about his features, but thankfully he looked basically like an owl.

Amber picked him up and rested him on her arm "How do you feel Meigs?" she asked.

The owl gave an angry screech. Amber patted him on the head "Good boy, you actually sound like an owl"

Lily walked around him a few times and then smiled "Good job Molly, he looks great"

Molly smiled "Yeah, I don't know how strong the charm is though, I'll have to refresh it afew times"

Amber shrugged, "Lets see if it works, shall we?" they walked over to where James and Tia were still arguing "…Then that dive I pulled off was the ultimate finish and bought us to win the match" James was saying smugly.

"Yeah, but we still didn't win the cup now did we?" Tia said, with a toss of her hair.

James waved his hand "Details, details"

Tia smirked and ran a hand over her hair.

"Hey guys, the carriages are here" Remus called.

Amber brightened up. She grabbed her trunk and raced over to on of the carriages.

To the surprise of the Marauders she started stroking the air "Hello there Vampire, you're looking very good this year, your coat has an extra sheen"

James turned to the girls "Uh…why is she patting the air?" he asked, confused.

Lily just shrugged "She likes to pretend that some, big black horses pull the school carriages"

"They are too real!" Amber called back to them childishly.

Tia shook her head and hopped in the carriage, throwing her trunk on the top first "Sure Amber, their real"

Molly shoved her trunk next to Tia's and Amber swung hers on top, bringing a very grumpy Amigo into the carriage with her.

Lily pushed her trunk on top but it slid back down again. She grumbled, she was slightly shorter than Amber and Molly, and considerably shorter than Tia who was almost as tall as James.

She tried pushing it up again, but this time it fell back and hit her on the head. From the front of the carriage came a snort of laughter. Lily starred at it for a moment then shook her head.

Suddenly a strong pair of arms grabbed her trunk and put it on top of the carriage for her.

She glared up at James then hopped into the carriage and slammed the door in his face.

She turned to her friends to see them all frowning at her, well, Amber might have been glaring at Sirius, or Cassandra, or Snape out the carriage window. The other two were definitely looking at her.

"What?" she asked. Molly shook her head. The carriage started moving.

"Lily, why won't you just give him a chance? He obviously likes you; it may do you some good"

Tia nodded "I have to agree with her, James is my friend and I hate seeing my friends get hurt, physically or emotionally"

They all turned and looked at Amber who was still glaring at the window, she turned when she saw all of them staring at her "What?" she asked.

Lily rolled her eyes "You agree with me don't you Amb?"

Amber frowned "Well…Personally I think that you should just go out with him so he can dump you and then let you be…so is that agreeing with you or Tia and Molly?"

Tia laughed "I think that you have your own little category"

Molly gently picked up Amigo "whose side are you on boy?" She asked.

Lily smiled at her friend "you do realise that he can't talk?" she asked.

Amber picked up the bird "Of coarse he can" she held him up to her face.

"You agree with me, don't you boy?" she asked. Amigo bobbed his head up and down.

Lily shook her head; her friends could be so weird sometimes.

The carriage stopped and they hopped out. Tia tossed Lily's bag down for her and grinned.

Lily gave her a small smile of thanks and they left their bags on the platform to be magically sent up.

They walked into the grand hall and took their usual seats

Amber kept straining her neck, trying to see something.

Tia poked her "What are you looking for?" she asked curiously.

"Sirius" she murmured, still searching the crowd.

Her friends all frowned at her, confused. "You'll understand when you see him" she smirked.

The marauders entered the grand hall. Tia waved to them, "Hey guys, over here" she motioned to the four seats opposite them.

"Tia!" Lily exclaimed annoyed. Tia shrugged and looked at Amber.

"Well you wanted a good view"

Amber grinned "This is perfect!".

Lily groaned as James sat down opposite her. He ran a hand over his hair and grinned at her. If he did that one more time she was going to rip his hand off.

Remus sat down opposite Amber to stop fights, and Sirius sat opposite Molly, who was next to Amber. Peter sat opposite Tia.

The sorting started and they all watched. Well, Remus and Lily watched.

Amber was drawing a horse on her serviette; Sirius was trying to charm it so that it would come out of the picture and bite her,

Tia and James were having a whispered conversation about the Pro's and Con's of James's new broom. Molly was filing her nails and Peter was trying to make his spoon levitate.

Finally after the sorting was finished (Owena Frances went to Gryffindor) Dumbledore stood up.

Everyone stopped what they were doing; Amber quickly folded her serviette in half to stop the horse from biting her.

"Welcome to another year at Hogwarts, to the old hands, welcome back. I have a few announcements before we start our wonderful feast"

A groan ran over the students and Dumbledore smiled "Mr. Filch has told me to remind all of you that the Forbidden Forest is in fact, forbidden.

He also has a list of all things banned, if any of you would like to see it you are welcome to go and check his office door.

We have one new teacher this year, please welcome Professor Soranya who will be teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts" A tall, slim, witch with shoulder length platinum blonde hair stood up and smiled at the students.

Practically all the boys mouths in the hall, dropped. Lily noted, slightly disgusted, that her robes were slightly tighter than the other teachers.

Professor Soranya sat down and a slight murmur filled the hall.

"I can't wait till Defence Against the Dark Arts" James mused, Remus hit him on the head

"Ouch! Don't do that!" he said, rubbing his head. They all looked at Sirius, expecting him to agree.

"Hmmmm" he just muttered, keeping his eyes on Dumbledore who had started to speak again.

"Now, we shouldn't spend anymore time talking, dig in" Dumbledore finished.

The plates and dishes were suddenly filled with food. The students immediately filled their plates up with food.

Lily noticed that Amber's plate only had vegetables and bread on it. "Amber, where's the meat?" she asked.

Amber finished piling the vegetables onto her plate "I have decided this year that I am going to be considerate of all animals and their-Ooooh, is that Chicken?" She immediately grabbed some.

Lily shook her head, talk about short attention span!

She suddenly noticed that Sirius was the only one who hadn't touched any food. That was unusual; usually he was the first to have food in his mouth.

"Sirius Whats wrong?" she asked. James looked over at his friend and held some chicken up in front of him.

Sirius looked slightly sick "Ugh, get that stuff away from me" he said, paling.

Amber grabbed a mint humbug; nobody knew why they were there. She held it out on her palm in front of Sirius. She clucked her tongue "Sirius, bo-oy" he eyed the mint and grabbed it from her hand in his mouth, crunching happily.

Amber smirked and wiped her hand with her serviette, forgetting for a moment that it had a biting horse on it. "Ouch" she muttered pulling her hand away.

James tried to get Sirius to eat a roast potato but he refused.

Amber smiled and pointed to a platter of cooked carrots "You may want to try those" she said smirking.

Remus rose his eyebrows at her "You're enjoying this aren't you?"

Amber grinned "Yes!" she said gleefully. James piled some carrots on Sirius's plate and gave it back to him.

Sirius's eyes lit up. Amber quickly cast a shield charm on her and her friends.

Sirius practically plunged his face into the carrots. For a horse, or in this case a mule, it would have probably worked. Unfortunately Sirius was neither a horse or a mule or even a donkey.

Basically, everyone near him was splattered with mushy carrot.

James gave a slight cough and wiped carrot out of his eyes while Remus was trying to get the worst out of his hair.

Peter had mostly been shielded by Remus, but still had carrot all over his robes.

The girls were laughing; thanks to the shield charm they were clean.

Remus Peter and James all glared at Amber, who shrugged innocently "Well, I did warn you that he shouldn't have been turned back.

They continued glaring at her. She grinned meekly "Did I mention that it's usually smart to use raw carrot?"

"I don't believe we're doing this" James muttered, leaning on his bed.

Sirius's bed had been transformed; they had taken away the mattress, pillow, blankets and hangings.

What they were left with was basically a slab of wood, raised off the ground with four wooden poles and a wooden frame that used to have curtains hanging from it.

Then they had put a wooden fence around the edge so that Sirius couldn't 'escape'.

With Peter's insistence that it had to be proper they had added a stable door at the front with a latch and a small ramp so that he could make his way up and down easily.

They had then filled the bottom of the 'stall' with straw.

Peter and Remus were admiring their work. "I have to say, even Amber would be impressed"

Remus noted. Peter nodded, flicking through 'All about mules' by Katherine Witburn. The book that Remus had borrowed from the library.

Remus looked at James expectantly "Do you want to do the honours?" he asked, opening the 'stable door'

James nodded "This is definitely going on my weirdest things I have ever done list" He said, approaching Sirius.

"You don't have a weirdest things you have ever done list" Sirius noted, following James up the ramp.

"I do now" Noted James, patting Sirius on the head. Sirius waved his hand away.

"I'm not a complete animal!" he exclaimed.

Remus and James hopped into their beds. Peter ran into the bathroom and came out with a bucket full of water. He hung it in the 'stable'.

He looked at all his friend's weird looks. "Well it says in the book that they should always have fresh water!"

Sirius wrinkled his nose and looked at the water "I'm not drinking that!"

Peter shrugged and climbed into his own bed.

Frank and Paul had already gone to sleep; James wondered what their reactions would be when they saw a 'stable' in their room.

Sirius turned around a couple of times, then, still standing, drifted off to sleep, his head hanging.

James stared for a second then got out a scrap piece of Parchment. "Weirdest…things…I…have…ever…done" he muttered as he wrote down the title.

**Yay! The second chapter is done, and Jinks is actually spelt Jinx! (Don't ask) Oh, and I would like to thank my friends for the use of their names and some of their experiences, even though they don't really realise that I have used them. Sometimes I will use their name, slightly modified if I can't think of anything else. And thank you Grey Mustang for the use of your horse (Molly, not Amigo. Yes I realise that Molly is not a horse in my story) **

**Oh, and just in case you were wondering, Molly is not and never will be Mrs Weasley. ** **They are two, completely different people!**

**Keep reviewing! More reviews, faster updates!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: Nope, I do not even own one character in Harry Potter. I did create a couple of characters in this, but, who cares? I can't wait for the seventh Harry Potter book! **

_James soared over a huge, crystal lake. His broom was the latest and fastest model that all of the players in the Quiddich world cup dreamed of having. It was called 'The speed of light'_

_It was sleek and shiny. He gripped onto its glowing platinum handle. It's sparkling golden tail shooting off stars and sparks. He soared down, so close to the shining water that he could see his rather handsome reflection._

_He pulled up, hovering over the lake; it had a sparkling purple vapour rising off of it._

_Tia soared up to him, riding her phoenix260, the red and gold broom._

_She saluted him, and he realised that he had just been made captain. The rest of his team flew up, he gasped, it was made up of all of his idol Quiddich players. They all saluted him._

_He looked at their brooms. They were all deep red and emerald green with 'Lily Evans' stamped over the broom handle._

_He suddenly saw Lily, sitting with Molly; both were waving happily at him. They were sitting in the Quiddich world cup stadium and everybody was cheering for him. He started to glide towards them, Lily's face standing out in the crowd._

_Two people on horseback galloped over the water to ride next to him. One was Amber, riding a horse that looked strangely like the owl that he had seen her with. The other was…Peter. Riding…well…Sirius when he was a mule._

_They galloped along the water with him flying between them. Suddenly they pulled up, sending sparkling droplets of water spraying around him._

_Lily was galloping along the water to meet him, riding a blonde horse that looked strangely like Remus._

_She dismounted and started running towards him. He swooped down to meet her, when a huge wave rose behind her and came crashing down on him. _

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" James sat up, glancing around him quickly.

"Wha? Where am I? Where's Lily? Is she okay?" He exclaimed, leaping out of bed and pacing around, not noticing that he was dripping wet, and a rather disgruntled Remus was standing next to his bed, holding an empty bucket.

"I have to find her, I hope the title wave didn't kill her!" he gasped thinking of how horrible that would be.

He started making his way towards the common room.

"James, it was a dream!" Remus sighed, shaking his friend roughly.

James paused, and noticed that he was soaking and it was still dark outside.

"Um…what's happening?" Remus shook his head.

"We're going down to breakfast a little early so that nobody will be there to see Sirius eat" he explained.

James paused "So I haven't been made quiddich captain of the world and don't have a speed of light and don't have a team of famous quiddich players and Tia and Sirius and Ambers owl cant gallop on water and your not a horse and Lily still hates me?"

Remus blinked "Uh…yeah" James's shoulders fell. Remus sighed, wanting to cheer his friend up.

"Well, look on the bright side uh…Tia's still on your team" James blinked considering it.

"Yeah, so the rest of the stuff can come true as well!" James exclaimed happily.

"Yeeeeah" Remus said slowly, hoping that he would never become a horse, "except for the part about Sirius galloping on water, I doubt Sirius can even gallop"

"Wanna bet?" Sirius asked darkly.

Remus and James turned and nearly burst out laughing. Sirius was wearing something that looked a little like a bridle, except that it was made of cloth.

It had a rope trailing from under Sirius's jaw that Peter was holding.

Sirius held up his hand "Don't talk" he warned, storming over to the door.

"Um…Peter?" Remus asked as James quickly got dressed. "What is that?"

Peter held up the mule book "It's a halter, for leading him places, and then tying him there so he doesn't escape. I'll lead him around and can tie him to his desk.

The thought of Sirius tied to his desk with no escape was so amusing that Remus and James started howling with laughter.

Sirius folded his arms "It's not funny!" he exclaimed poking the neon orange 'halter', "this looks terrible on me!"

James nodded "You need something more like…" he muttered, transfiguring the 'halter'.

The 'halter' turned crimson with a dark blue rope and the rugged cloth turned into straight strips of nylon. Now it looked more like the picture in the book.

Sirius rushed over to the mirror and studied himself "Heeey, I don't look too bad" he said, turning to the sides "I may start a new trend!"

They started to make their way towards the Grand Hall. Trying to be as quiet as they could so that they wouldn't wake anybody up.

Remus sighed "I doubt that halters for people could ever become fashionable"

James narrowed his eyes accusingly "That's what you said when Kitty started the trend for wearing cat collars"

Remus sighed exasperated "She was doing that for a dare, she had to act like a cat for a day"

"Ohhhhhh, so that's why she was licking her hand" James mused.

"She still does wear them though" Sirius noted "And when someone as popular as Kitty" He received a glare from Remus here "Starts doing something, everyone does it!"

James nodded "True, but are you as popular as Kitty?" he asked, also receiving a glare from Remus.

"Guys, you know how much I hate it when you talk about her like that!" he complained.

"Well we can't help it" James said "Maby if she wasn't so-"

Remus gave him a death glare "Don't even think of finishing that sentence!"

"You look scarily like Amber when you do that!" Peter said, nervously.

Sirius shook his head "Trust me, Ambers death glare is a lot scarier than that!" he exclaimed.

James shook his head "I still don't believe how upset she was when you charmed her hair so that it would stay straight and neat"

Remus nodded "She looked so much like her sister it was scary"

"How do you know?" Peter asked

"Hey, Opal is Kitty's best friend. Of course I know"

"I thought that her name was Sapphire?" James asked.

"Yes, well you've never been the best with names have you?" Remus asked.

"Hmmmm" mumbled James, remembering how he had thought that Molly's name was Millie, Amber was Topaz, and Lily was Lavender.

They reached the Grand hall. Peter quickly turned into a rat and scurried off, to tell the elves to send up some toast, and a bowl of oatmeal.

"Oh, so we don't get anything on the toast?" James asked grumpily. He had been woken up from one of the best dreams he'd ever had, dumped with water, had to come to breakfast early and all he got for his effort was a piece of toast.

Remus just sighed, he was tired too. But Sirius's reputation was at stake…wait, why was he worried about that?

Sirius was tugging at the halter "Can I take this off to eat?" he asked.

Remus shrugged and James nodded enthusiastically "you are not ruining my beautiful halter, I'm very proud of that!"

Sirius undid the buckled just in time for a bowl of oatmeal and a plate piled with toast appeared.

"Yum!" Sirius exclaimed, plunging his face into the bowl like he did with the carrots, Remus and James were smart enough this time to have cast a shield charm moments before.

James looked down at his piece of toast less enthusiastically "Yum" he said glumly, taking a bite.

"So what time is it anyway?" James asked Remus curiously.

"Oh, not too early" Remus replied lightly. James glared at him,

"Uhhhhh, 5:30" Remus mumbled.

"5:30?" James practically sobbed, "We usually only have to come down at 8:00!"

Remus shrugged "Sirius wanted to be sure" they both glanced at their friend who still had his face in the bowl.

The door to the Grand Hall opened and a tall figure came in. At first James thought that it was Peter, but the figure was taller and thinner than his friend.

"Tia?" James asked, wondering why on earth she would be up this early. As usual, her black hair was up in a high ponytail and her skin shone with a slight sheen of sweat.

"Hey James" she puffed slightly "Remus, Sirius"

"Why are you up so early...Voluntarily?" James asked groggily.

She laughed at his tone "I was jogging, I always do on the mornings, I just stopped in here to see who else was up so early"

She looked down at Sirius, whose head was still in his bowl. He was wondering if it would be more embarrassing to take his face out or just stay in.

"I'm guessing you're here since Sirius doesn't want another incident like yesterday"

They nodded. "Will you join us for a piece of plain, slightly cold toast?" James asked.

Tia rolled her eyes and sat down next to James, grabbing a piece of toast.

"I know it's a bit weird, but you'll get used to it after a while" Tia told Sirius.

"How do you know?" asked Remus

"I've been a mule before, remember when Amber…well, she didn't really get along with us very well"

James snorted, that was an understatement, they had basically been worst enemies.

"Trust me, you'll get used to it" Tia grabbed another piece of toast and jumped up, leaving the Great Hall.

_Thousands of glittering charmed keys flew around Lily as she raised her wand. She swooped her hand down and pointed it at James._

_He cowered as the keys flew towards him. Lily grinned, making the keys form the words 'You loose Potter' then they soared around her again. _

_Suddenly the keys swooped towards her and…_

"Aaah!" Lily sat up quickly, waking up to see Tia staring down at her.

"Don't do that!" she panted. Tia rolled her eyes,

"We have to get down to breakfast, weren't you saying that you wanted to be early for charms?"

Lily leapt out of bed. Molly was already up, applying lip gloss in the bathroom.

"Can you get Amber up?" Tia asked, pointing at the lump in Amber's bed.

"You are a freak" Amber muttered in her sleep.

Lily laughed and poked her friend. Amber just waved her hand away.

Lily sighed and shot water out of her wand.

"Aaaaah!" Amber sat up; her eyes were wide and scared

"Whats wrong?" Tia asked, concerned.

Amber shook her head, slightly pale "Nothing" she muttered.

"Aaaah, the first charms lesson of the year" Lily sighed happily.

"Uhhhhnnn, the first charms lesson of the year" Tia groaned. Molly laughed at Tia's response.

"Why are you so down on charms?" she asked curiously. Tia just shrugged.

"Another useless subject that I will never have to use in life" She said, running a hand over her pony tail to make sure that it wasn't getting to neat.

"Now Tia, Charms are used in every day life, whether we use it for our jobs or not. Why, without cleaning and cooking charms we would be just like the average muggle and if we didn't-"

"-Alert, alert, the importance of charms in our life speech alert. It's not too late to run for cover!" Amber called out. She grabbed Tia by the wrist and they sprinted off ahead of the others.

Molly laughed and patted Lily's arm "Don't worry, I enjoyed your speech the first five times I heard it"

Lily grumbled something, then looked up as Kitty bounced up to her, followed by a slightly reluctant looking Opal.

"Hey, Lily, Molly" Opal nodded to them, "Do you know where Amber is?"

Lily shrugged "Probably somewhere near class"

Kitty raised her perfectly shaped eyebrows. "I never knew that Amber was so eager for class" she said, playing with the bell on her light blue collar.

"Why would you want Amber?" a voice said from behind them.

Opal reddened and dropped the bag she was holding.

Kitty sighed and looked at Remus "Oh, I don't know, maybe because Opals her sister?"

Sirius flashed Kitty a flirtatious grin "Hey Kitty"

She smiled back at him "Hi Sirius" she said smoothly "Um…what on earth are you wearing?" she asked, looking at the halter.

Sirius raised his eyebrows "Didn't you know that this is the latest in fashion?"

"No" said Kitty disbelievingly "But I'm sure that if _you_-"

"-Please, don't" said Remus who was looking slightly sick.

"Don't worry, I would never make too big a scene with-" Kitty paused "-Uhhhhh, my brother's friend" She finished, batting her eyelashes at Remus.

Opal handed Lily a pair of brushes "Give these to Am-b-ber" she managed to choke out before rushing off.

Kitty waved to Sirius and James, then turned, yelling "AND THEN THERE WAS THE TIME THAT HE BOUGHT HIS FIRST GIRLFRIEND OVER, BOY, WAS THAT A MISTAKE!"

Remus glared at his sisters retreating back and then turned and started to charms, the rest behind him.

Lily came up to Amber and Tia who were talking about divination "It is an ancient art, used for generations-"

"It is a load of rubbish!"

Lilly tapped Amber on the shoulder and handed her the brush's "Oh, thanks" Amber took them and walked over to Remus then handed them to him.

"These are for Sirius" she pointed to the flat one with small rubber studs "That is the currycomb, used for getting rid of dust and sweat, and that" she pointed to the brush with long bristles "Is the dandy brush, used for brushing"

Remus took them and handed them to Sirius, barely concealing his smirk

**S-We have to get back at Amber for turning me into a mule!**

The message shone on James's piece of paper. They were in History of Magic with Professor Binns.

Another note appeared on the enchanted parchment.

_R-We?_

James grinned and started scribbling

_**J-Yes we! Think of all the times we've helped you Mooney!**_

P-But what can we do to her that she will consider revenge? I thought you used all of your idea's last time!

**S-Aaah, yes, but I have another great plan, and I need your help!**

_R-sigh what do I have to do?_

**S-Find me a Bogart!**

_**J-Ooooh, sneaky, I've always wondered what Nightingale's afraid of**_

_R-I can, help you. But I don't think I will_

P-C'mon Mooney, we can watch from the room of requirement like last time

_R-Okay, as long as you promise not to hurt her_

**S-Yeah, yeah. **

_**J-So how will you lure her there?**_

**S-Not me, you. Remember those Potions notes you promised her last year?**

_**J-No**_

**S-Well now you do.**

_**J-Oh, why would I promise to give her Potions notes? That doesn't sound like me? Was Lily there?**_

P-So what do I do?

**S-You and I will be setting up the room.**

PWhy?

**S-We have a little surprise for Amber.**

"Hey Amber", Amber rolled her eyes and turned to James.

"Yeah Potter?" she asked.

Lily grabbed Tia and Molly's arms and escaped. Amber glared back at them.

"Remember how last year I promised you my potions notes?"

"No" Amber crossed her arms, wondering if Lily had been present at the time.

"Well, I still need to give them to you. Will you meet me by the tapestry of Barnabus the Barmy trying to teach those troll's ballet?"

She just sighed "And bring Lily with me?"

His eyes widened at the thought of endangering Lily like that.

He gasped "NO!"

She just shrugged "Okay, as long as it doesn't take too long, I need all the help in potions that I can get"

With that she turned and walked off.

James called after her "I'll be there after class"

"Good for you" came the reply.

James turned and grinned at Sirius, Peter and Remus who had been hiding behind a statue nearby.

"She bought it!"

Lily peered at the book she was reading "It says here that if you sprinkle the powder clockwise instead of anticlockwise you can cause a drought.

Molly wrinkled her nose "anticlockwise, anticlockwise" she muttered.

Lily leant over another page when the door to the Library where they were studying for their potions lesson.

Lily looked up and stared at the person who had just entered.

He had short spiky, sandy brown hair and bright blue-green eyes.

He had a group of friends with him and was laughing and joking but he stopped and raised a finger to his lips as they entered the library.

Molly nudged her friend "Lily stop staring!" Lily jumped and realised that she had been staring open mouthed, watching the boy.

"Sorry, who is he" she asked, slightly star struck.

"Tai Groman, fith year Ravenclaw, Keeper of the Quiddich team"

Lily grinned at Molly "How come you always know this stuff?" she asked.

Molly shrugged "I listen" she said simply.

Lily gazed at Tai for afew minutes, until she heard Amber coming into the room. She quickly looked away; she knew that if Amber caught her staring at someone she would immediately state that she didn't like them.

She was never good at judging people, she blamed her father.

Amber was easy to hear coming into the room. She never walked anywhere; she either stormed or floated or ran or strolled, but never walked.

This time she was storming "I do not believe him!"

Lily sighed everyone in the library was staring at them now; Amber had a strange inability not to be able to whisper in the library either.

Lily noticed that Tai was staring at her and blushed, turning away, thankfully neither of her friends noticed.

"What did he do this time?" Molly was asking sympathetically.

"He insists upon a meeting to discuss my future years at schooling, do you know what that means?" she was still shouting, reading off a slip of paper.

She continued without giving them a chance to answer "He wants to send me to another school" she panted a while and waved the paper around in Lily and Molly's face.

She calmed down and looked pleadingly at them "Anyway, I have to go now and I promised James that I would meet him by the tapestry of Barnabus the Barmy to pick up some potions notes"

"When did he offer you potions notes…was Lily there?" Molly asked.

Amber shrugged "The point is I can't make it, Can one of you go?" She asked, looking pointedly at Molly, she knew that Lily would never offer to go.

Molly shrugged "Sure, Its just picking up some notes right? It's not like I have anything better to do, except reading about antyclockwiseness"

Lily and Amber just stared at Molly. Just when she was starting to sound smart during an entire conversation she always managed to come up with some strange comment like that.

"Kay, goodbye forever" Amber said darkly storming out of the library and towards Dumbledore's office.

Molly got up as well "I'll go and get those notes now, wanna come?" she asked, knowing the answer.

"No thanks, some of us need help at potions" she said. Molly nodded and walked out of the library.

Lily looked over at Tai and walked over to his group, the only other people in the library.

She took a deep breath; she needed to know more about this Tai "I'm sorry if my friend disturbed your studying, she likes to…shout" she said lamely.

Tai shrugged "No worries, we need some entertainment around here" Lily peered at him for a moment, he had a slight accent but she couldn't figure out what it was

There were two other boys and a girl sitting with him. One of the boys was Paul Patil, and the other she couldn't remember but thought that he was on the Ravenclaw team as well.

The Girl had long blonde hair in a plait and was sitting next to Paul who had her arm around her.

Lily shook her head, wondering if it was Paul's wish to go out with every girl in the year at Hogwarts. As far as she knew, he was the only guy who had ever been brave enough to go out with Amber. Even if it was only for an hour

And he went out with Tia in Fourth year, and her in third and Molly…some time.

Lily pushed the thought out of her head when he noticed that Tai was smiling at her "Do you want to study with us?" he asked "We're working on potions"

Lily smiled and sat down.

"James?" Molly called out, wondering where he could be.

She lifted up the tapestry and peered behind it. Still no James.

Suddenly she noticed a door that hadn't been there before. She looked at it curiously and walked over towards it, placing her hand on the door handle.

"Nothings happening" James complained, sounding bored.

Suddenly the door handle turned and a figure walked into the room.

It was immediately filled with water. Sirius frowned "Nightingale's afraid of water?"

Bubbles were emerging from her mouth so they guessed she could breathe.

Remus had frozen. James looked at him "Whats wrong Remus?" he asked.

"That-that isn't Amber" He chocked out. The others looked closely, not that they looked they noticed that the girl looked a bit shorter that Amber and her hair was dark and shoulder length.

James let out a groan when they saw her "Molly" he suddenly felt a wave of guilt. Molly had always been nice and friendly towards him and tried to convince Lily to give him a chance. He got up to go and let her out.

Molly had frozen in the water. The bubbles rising from her mouth suddenly stopped and she held a hand to her throat. She turned to rush to the door but suddenly found that her foot was jammed under a rock.

She tried desperately to move, growing weaker with every movement. Two sharks appeared and started circling her.

Remus unfroze and ran out of the room. James quickly followed him. Sirius and Peter hurrying after him.

Remus went towards the room of requirement and Peter ran towards the hospital wing. James headed to the library where he had seen Lily before. Sirius just stood in shock.

Remus pulled open the door, expecting water to come rushing out. To his surprise it stayed in the shape of a wall. He gaped at this for a moment before plunging in.

Molly had fainted and was drifting weakly. He swam towards her. One of the sharks looked at him, then turned into a moon; the other didn't want to be left out so it turned into a room as well.

Remus sighed; there was something un scary about two moons underwater.

He was running out of air. He quickly pulled the rock off Molly's foot and dragged her out of the room.

James burst into the library, he saw Lily sitting with some guy called Suit or Tie or something. He frowned at this, then remembered why he was there.

"LilywewereprankingAmberandMollycameandshe'safraidofdrowiningorsharksnotsurewichandyouhavetocomeandhelpher" James said, running over to her and saying it all in one breath.

Lily glared at him "James go away!" she exclaimed angrily, turning back to her book.

"Please, Lily, Molly's in trouble" She glanced up, a spark of fear in her eyes.

"Is this just another way to get me alone with you?" she asked grumpily.

Tai gently pushed her towards the door "I think that you should go" he said, James narrowed his eyes at his stupid, weird accent, then hurried after Lily.

They rushed down the corridor and came to where Molly was.

She was lying on the ground, soaked. Remus was uncertinately prodding her and Sirius was asking "Do you want me to try mouth to mouth resuscitation?"

Lily gasped and nelt down next to her friend. Peter and Madame Pomfrey came rushing down the hall. She got Remus and James to carry her to the hospital wing.

Lily turned to Sirius and Peter, upset. "Can you two please go and get Amber and Tia and tell them where we are?"

They nodded and she rushed after the others tearfully.

Sirius pulled out their marauders map and looked at the little dots. Tia was at the quiddich pitch and Amber was in Dumbledore's office.

Sirius wondered why Nightingale was in the Headmasters office with someone named John Nightingale. Amber's dot seemed to be moving frantically around a lot.

He just shrugged and headed towards the quiddich pitch while Peter went to Dumbledore's office.

Tia swooped around the goalposts, imagining that she was scoring goals and winning matches.

She swerved around and headed towards the opposite goal, trying out a move that Melanie had taught her. She twirled towards the goal, her loops becoming smaller and smaller until she was just spinning around on her broom.

Then she quickly did a backwards flip and pretended to score a goal.

She threw her arms in the air "And the crowd goes wild as Tia Longwell scores another goal, doing much better than that annoying Potter brat!" she said, imitating the commentary.

Actually, that was pretty close to what the commentary sounded like, since Remus's sister, Kitty, and Sirius were in charge.

Speaking of Sirius…she saw a figure standing at the entrance, waving and trying to get her attention.

She looked down at him and then swooped down, narrowly missing him, as always.

"Admiring my moves Black?" she asked, smirking.

"Molly's…well, sick, and it's my fault" He said, looking dejected.

She stared at him for a second before grabbing his arm and striding off towards the Hospital wing.

"Tell me on the way" she said calmly.

Molly's eyes fluttered open.

She sat up then lay back down again, she felt strangely dizzy and was gasping the air.

"Wha-Uuuunnnhhh" she tried to speak but cut off with a groan and threw up a bucket load of water.

Lily, who had been talking to James looked at her and gasped "Molly are you okay?"

"Mhhhhhhhmmmm" she moaned.

"Molly, I am so sorry" James said, looking hopeless.

Tia and Sirius burst into the room Tia was still wearing her quiddich robes and holding her broom "Molly!" she gasped, flinging her gold and red Phoenix 260 at Sirius.

Peter came in soon after them, without Amber.

Tia looked at him "Where's Amber?" she asked.

"She stormed off to her dorm as soon as she left, she didn't even notice me but-"

He cut off as Tia rushed out again, obviously going to tell Amber.

"-Now might not be the best time to tell her" he mumbled.

He then turned to Sirius and James "I suggest we run fast… very fast"

**A/N Yay! Third chapter done, and no this is not Sirius it is Midnight Filly. I can't wait to write the next chapter, it's when things really start to happen that lead to the rest of the story. And Tai is pronounced Tie…Just thought I'd let you know. I don't really have much left to say, I'll update as soon as possible. Please review! **

**Midnight Filly **


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter which is just as well since then I wouldn't be writing this story **

Peter cautiously peered around the hall. "It's clear" he confirmed.

James and Sirius followed, sighing. Sirius was still wearing his 'halter' and munching on an apple.

"It's been an hour; don't you think she will have cooled down from whatever she was doing in Dumbledore's office?" Sirius asked. He was bored with being cautious. They would have been using the Marauders map, but Remus had taken it.

"No!" Peter and James said in unison. Sirius sighed.

"I just think that you're overreacting a little" he insisted.

They rounded another corner and a suit of armour blew up.

"**BLACK!" **a familiar voice shrieked.

"Aaaaahhhhh!" James turned and began to run away but a stream of green light shot out of the figures wand and dragged him back

"Don't you dare run" Amber was striding towards them, he face was bright red and her fists were clenched so tightly that they were white.

Lily was nervously trotting behind her Tia was following at a distance, looking scared and supporting Molly who was slowly walking beside her.

"Why?" Amber's voice was quiet, but they could hear every word she said, since everyone in hearing range was deathly silent.

Sirius stepped forward "What does it matter to you? It was just a prank"

Everybody in the hallway flinched, and James and Peter edged slightly away from him.

Another statue blew up, the pieces shattering over the floor.

Amber strode up to him and pointed to the ground "Grovel"

Sirius stood up taller and narrowed his eyes. He couldn't step down to a girl who's last name was Nightingale.

Behind him Peter and James winced, Sirius might as well have been tap-dancing on thin, cracked ice, with a giant, starved, meat eating, mutant shark, circling underneath.

Amber's eyes flashed dangerously and she turned to Peter and James "You too" she said, glaring at them.

They immediately fell onto the ground "Sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry"

Sirius looked down at them disgusted, Amber slowly turned to him again.

"Gee Nightingale, what could have you so worked up" He flinched as he said it; he was going to be the Giant Squids lunch.

Peter and James both smacked their heads on the ground. Now he had broken through the ice and was patting the giant, starved, meat eating, mutant shark on the head.

Amber's glare deepened, Sirius could practically see her pupils bursting into flame.

Lily grabbed her friend by the shoulder "Amber don't!" she hissed. Amber shook her off and pulled out her wand.

"Stop!"

This time it wasn't Lily. Tia had stepped forward and grabbed Amber's wand. She pushed Amber back "If you deal with them they will be the giant squids lunch" she looked up and glared at Sirius "Cool down and let me"

She lightly pushed Amber back and stepped forwards.

She looked down at Peter and James "you can get up" she said. They quickly scrambled up.

She turned to the Marauders "You don't need to grovel or beg, just say sorry…to Molly…and actually mean it"

Peter and James practically flung themselves at Molly's feet and started bowing clumsily.

They both started talking at once so that nobody could properly hear them.

"Sorry-so sorry-don't know what I-so stupid-dumb, dumb, dumb-Sirius made me-dumb, dumb, dumb-Nightingale-scared-get back-mule-apples-a stable!-great halter-water-will throw self into-off astronomy tower-dumb, dumb, dumb"

Molly smiled and hiccupped, spraying droplets of water over the front of her robes.

"It's okay. I forgive you two" she managed to choke out.

Sirius came up to her slowly, hanging his head "Molly, I wont apologise to Nightingale, but I will to you, I am so sorry! I don't know what I was thinking, it was really to get back at her" he cast a glare over at Amber.

Molly lowered her eyes "That's fine Sirius, okay, I don't hold grudges" she muttered to the floor, before grabbing the bucket that Lily was holding and coughing up some more water.

"Come on, we have to get you back to the hospital wing" Tia murmured, taking Molly's arm and guiding her away.

Amber jogged to catch up with them and bumped into Sirius as she passed him.

Sirius's shoulders dropped. He had seen how Molly had smiled and talked to James and Peter, but just muttered to him, while watching the floor.

He wasn't just upset because she wasn't giggling and looking up at him like she used to. He had lost a friend. He didn't want her as anything more than a friend, but he had to get her trust back.

"Hey, Lily" Lily paused and whirled around. Tai was standing behind her looking concerned "Want me to come with you to the hospital wing?" he asked.

_YES! _She thought "Oh, well, okay, if you want" he smiled and walked next to her. She was walking behind Tia, who was supporting Molly.

Amber was storming along behind her muttering something about killing Black.

Lily sighed, realising that she still didn't know what had happened in Dumbledore's office. She wondered how bad it was. One thing was for sure, The Marauders had definitely chosen a bad time for there prank. If Tia hadn't stepped in Lily was afraid to think of what would have happened.

Tai seemed to be thinking the same thing "Those guy's don't have great timing do they?" he asked.

Lily smiled and shook her head "No, definitely not" she said, thinking of James.

"Remind me never to get on Amber's bad side" Lily raised her eyebrows, how did he know Ambers name? Sirius had only called her Nightingale.

"How do you-" she was cut off by a shout.

"-Hey Lily, Mind if I walk with you" James called, panting and running after her.

Lily felt like screaming out **"YES! Cant you see I'm in the middle of a conversation!" **

She recognised James's voice anywhere. He ran up on her left side, Tai was on her right. Lily decided to ignore him. She turned her back on him and talked to Tai.

"So, you're the keeper in the quiddich team? My friend Molly told me" she asked.

Next to her James shook his head "No Lily, you know that I'm the seeker"

Tai looked curiously at them. "Hi, I'm Tai Groman" he said to James.

James ignored him "So Lily, you're still coming to watch me practise like you promised, right?"

Lily continued talking to Tai "So why did you choose Keeper?"

"I-" James cut Tai off.

"I chose to be a seeker because it is by far the best position. You actually get to win the match most of the time, its all up to you. Unlike, say, a Keeper, who's only job is to block goals, they have no affect of the game" James said casually.

"Lily, I've got to go…uh…my uncle was supposed to come and I think he's…here, bye" Tai, muttered then rushed off.

James smugly watched him go "Well we mustn't keep your 'uncle' waiting" he said lightly "Or should I say girlfriend?"

Lily glared at him then rushed over to Tia to help Molly.

"I can't believe James Potter!" Lily exclaimed, furiously kicking the bed post. It was more solid than it looked and she ended up hopping around for afew seconds afterwards.

"What did he do this time?" Amber asked, while trying to break off one of her nails.

Lily, Tia and Amber were sitting by Molly's bed in the hospital wing and chatting while she slept.

They could go down to the common room, but decided to keep Amber and Lily away from Sirius and James.

"I was talking with a really nice guy called Tai Groman, then he just came barging in and completely ignored Tai even though I was ignoring him. Then Tai made a lame excuse about his uncle coming and dashed off"

Lily sat down and put her face in her hands.

Amber looked up, finally managing to snap off the top of a nail "Tai was actually telling the truth about the uncle thing"

"He was?" Lily asked.

"How would you know?" Tia said curiously.

Amber tossed back her long hair and snapped off another nail "I had a meeting with the person in question"

"I thought the meeting was with your dad?" Lily said, confused. Amber just raised her eyebrows at her. "Your dad and his uncle were there?" Lily asked.

Amber rolled her eyes "Honestly, you're starting to sound like Molly. No, there was one man there with me and Dumbledore. Yet both my father and his uncle were present"

Tia frowned "Soooo, Dumbledore is his uncle?" Amber just stared at them.

Lily gasped "You're Tai's cousin!"

Amber nodded "Gee, did you figure that out all by yourself?"

Lily's eyes brightened "So how come I've never met him before? And how come his name is Groman and yours is Nightingale? Where does he come from?"

Amber hit her on the head "Ouch, what was that for?" Lily asked.

"Please don't tell me that you have a crush on surfer boy" Amber groaned.

"No way! But he is kinda cute, and really nice, and he has those great eyes…" Lily sighed and Amber hit her again.

"Great! Now I have to disown you and Opal!"

"So where does he come from?" asked Tia, curiously.

Amber shrugged "Austria, or Australia or Antarctica or somewhere. I dunno exactly"

Tia nodded "Australia, I thought that I'd heard that accent somewhere" she grinned guiltily at Lily "I was kinda eavesdropping on you before"

Both Tia and Lily sighed and gazed at the wall, Lily's gaze was dreamy, while Tia's was more thoughtful.

"Wow, Australia"

"I wonder if he's good at sport."

Amber just rolled her eyes and snapped off another nail.

"Are you sure that this is a good idea?" Remus whispered.

It was early in the morning, and the Marauders had turned into their animagi forms and snuck into the girl's dormitory.

James just shrugged "This one wont backfire like last time" Sirius nodded

"It's foolproof, she will never know that it was us" He said, peering into the darkness, trying to Find Amber's bed.

"A ha ha ha" Peter said dryly.

Remus pointed to one of the beds "Amber is there" he said immediately.

"How can you tell?" asked Peter.

Remus pointed to the pair of boots and scrunched up jeans and t-shirts toppling out of her bag that was lying open.

"Oh"

James looked at his watch "we better hurry before Tia comes back from her run. Merlin, that girl gets up early"

Sirius grinned and held out his hand "The Livestock please James"

"**BLACK!" **the shriek ran through the castle again.

"Aaaaah, I think that our plan has worked" Sighed Sirius, leaning back on his chair.

He glanced over at his friends and saw that they had all cast shield spells and were hiding under the table.

"Uh…guys, you don't have to worry about being coated in food, I'm sticking to raw carrots remember?" he asked, waving the carrot he was eating around.

"We're not worried about food. Its Nightingale's temper that we're scared of" said Remus, who was trying to get past his shield to his food.

"What can she do that will affect us in any-Ooooh, they have muesli bars!" he grabbed one and greedily chewed it.

"Oh yes, what could she possibly do that could affect us in any way?" asked Peter sarcastically.

James was pulling out a scrap piece of parchment "Watching-Sirius-eat-a muesli-bar-without-throwing-a-fit" he muttered, writing it down.

"Uh…James, may I ask what you're doing?" Remus asked, unsuccessfully trying to grab an apple.

"Oh, I-never mind!" James said, ducking back under the table.

They all glanced towards the door where Lily, Tia, and raging mad Amber had entered.

They all looked relatively normal, except for the fact that Amber had a flock of sweetly singing grey birds fluttering around her head. Nightingales.

Remus and Peter ducked under the table.

She scanned the room, but it didn't fall on the smug looking, dark haired boy. It fell on the laughing blonde.

She sighed and strode over to Tai Groman. Lily glanced over at him and her eyes brightened, she bounced next to Amber over to the Ravenclaw table.

Tia turned to the boys and looked Sirius in the eye. She pointed to him then drew her finger across her throat. Remus and Peter got the message and gulped. Sirius shrugged and James glared off in the opposite direction where the Ravenclaw table was located.

It appeared that Suit hadn't gotten his message that Lily was his. He wondered why they were going over to his table.

"Why are the girls going over to Suit?" he asked suspiciously.

Peter shrugged, Remus sighed "It's Tai, and I'm guessing because-"

James gasped "He's trying to steal Lily from me!" he exclaimed, ducking under the table and crawling off.

Remus just sighed. Peter looked slightly confused "How can he steal something that James doesn't own?"

Sirius was still staring at the entrance; obviously Tia's message was sinking in. Lessons today would be…interesting.

"So my stupid dad was here, basically just saying that I need to look after my little baby cousin and to help you with work…yada, yada, yada. He didn't say anything else to you?"

Amber slammed her hand down on the Ravenclaw table and glared at Tai. They all had to shout slightly over the noise the birds were making. He shrugged slightly.

"Along those lines, I don't know about the baby part. Seeing as I am only three months younger than you"

He ducked as one of the nightingales swooped down over his head to steal his toast. He sighed and grabbed another piece.

Amber just waved her hand. Lily sighed, wondering why Amber had to be so mean to everyone, she hoped that Tai wasn't like that. She had tried quizzing Amber on him but she just sighed and asked Tia where she could get disowning papers.

"Yeah, yeah, so did he say anything about me?" she asked, slamming her hand down again.

The Ravenclaw's nearby were edging away nervously. Lily guessed that an incredibly angry girl with messy waist length hair, snapped off nails and a flock of birds around her head would be pretty intimidating.

Tai looked more amused than scared of his cousin. Lily guessed that he was used to her by now.

"Well he mentioned something about a robbery at his house"

Amber gasped, "Not Champ!" she swatted away one of the birds.

Lily glanced down at her clean robes and edged slightly away from Amber. She wanted her robes to stay clean.

Tai just shook his head and looked up as the post arrived. "No, actually it was you're horse, Amigo. That must be a terrible shock for you. He was a great horse"

Amigo chose that moment to swoop down and snatch Tai's toast.

"Hmmm, did you get a new owl Ber?" Tai asked Amber "He looks an awful lot like Amigo" the 'owl' jumped slightly at his name, and looked expectantly at Tai.

Amber rolled her eyes "You didn't tell him?" she asked.

Tai shook his head "Nope, you have too much information about me"

He smiled at Amber Lily and Tai, who had just walked up. "Do you girls want to join us for breakfast?"

Lily immediately sat down next to him "Sure!"

Amber sighed and sat opposite. Tia sat down next to her.

A silver grey owl with charcoal head and wings swooped next to Tai. He busied himself with untying the letter attached.

"Did you get a new owl?" Amber asked, studying the bird "What happened to your…kookadunga?"

Tai rolled his eyes "Kookaburra. I left him in Australia; it was easier just to get an owl"

"What is Australia like?" Lily asked attentively.

"We have Care of Magical Creatures, Potions and Charm's together. What are the teachers like?"

The voice was muffled by the table above him. James sat, grumbling slightly to himself.

Nobody knew that he was under the table, listening to their conversation. Well, Tia knew since she had watched him crawl under. She was giving him a kick from time to time, but he wasn't moving.

So far they had just been talking about Australia, and school. Lily had been hanging on every word Suit had said.

James could tell that this Suit was trying to steal Lily from him. He had practically stated 'I am going to steal Lily Evan's from James Potter who really deserves her'.

Well, he had actually said 'Pass the butter' but James had read between the lines.

He definitely had to have a word with this Suit.

He wondered when he should get going to potions. He received another kick from Tia.

Ouch. That girl was stronger than she looked. He decided that now would be a good time, before he permanently bruised.

"Today we will be making a sort of freezing potion. Well, it doesn't freeze as much as it resets something. Very handy for making jelly" Lily watched Professor Slughorn pace in front of the class. She couldn't wait to get started.

They had finally gotten rid of the nightingales by using them for their transfiguration lesson.

Molly had returned from the hospital wing, as good as normal. Lily hoped that she would be partnered with her. She was the best in the year at potions.

Amber was so bad at potions that she couldn't even make the simplest cough antidote without blowing it up or somehow making a potion that made the drinker cough frogs for an hour afterwards. Lily knew from experience, she never wanted to see another frog again.

Tia, as with practically all of her subjects, could be above average with them. But chose instead to concentrate on sport. She was okay at potions, but not great.

Lily was an above average at potions. But they still never managed to have the exact perfect shade, or scent.

Professor Slughorn was still talking "So I will pair you up for class today" a groan swept the room "and I have decided to pair you boy-girl, since that seems to drive you to concentrate more" another groan filled the room.

Professor Slughorn took out two old Honeydukes jars. They were both filled with slips of parchment. He pulled one out and cleared his throat. "Nightingale…aaaand…Black".

Everybody in the room, including Professor Slughorn, winced. Not only were Amber and Sirius, as usual, in the middle of a fight. But they were also, both the worst in the year at potions.

"Aaaahhh, yes, how about you two go and sit, right there at the back, see the desk furthest away from me?"

Amber sighed and turned to glare at Sirius.

"Okay, worst over" Slughorn muttered "Patil and Finigan, Pettigrew and Longwell, White and Lupin, Piper and Gardener, Potter and Mortimer-Hopes, Evans and Groman…"

Lily felt like squealing and jumping up and down, she wasn't with James and she was with Tai!

James scowled he wasn't with Lily and she was with that Suit guy.

When Slughorn had finished calling out names Lily went over to Tai. "Let's sit down here, at the front. Far, far away from Amber and Sirius"

Tai nodded and sat in front of the cauldron furthest away from them "Yeah, honestly, that girl can't even boil water. Last time she did she flooded her house". Lily giggled.

James looked darkly at them and pulled the brown haired girl he was with into the seats above Lily and Suit so that he could spy on them.

"Ouch, what's the rush?" she asked, slightly annoyed. He just grunted in reply.

Peter and Tia sat next to Lily and Tai. While Molly and Remus sat next to James and Sophie.

Molly pulled out the potion ingredients. Remus was pretty good at potions. And everybody said that she was exceptional, Alough she thought that they were exaggerating. This lesson would be pretty good.

She felt very sorry for Amber and Sirius…and whoever was sitting anywhere near them.

"And now we add a sprinkle of ice dust in a clockwise direction, making sure to evenly spread it through the potion" Remus read off the book.

Molly sprinkled the glittering, blue dust around. Their potion swirled and turned the exact, cool, florescent yellow described in the book. It was simmering gently and smelled like pineapple and marshmallows. It had the creamy, but thin texture that it was supposed to.

Molly smiled, pleased with their potion. Now they just had to wait for three minutes until the potion cooled. Remus carefully put out the fire. Then glanced at his watch.

They looked around the classroom at the others potions. Lily and Tai's was probably the second best. It was banana yellow, and smelt very sweet. It looked about the right texture.

Tia and Peter's was a deep golden colour, and it smelt strongly of sunscreen and burnt toast. It was thin, but slightly lumpy.

James and Sophie's was looking pretty gross. It was slightly greener than yellow and smelt like rotting fruit and soap. The texture was a lot more watery than the others.

But compared to Amber and Sirius's James and Sophie's was perfect.

They had somehow turned the potion bright purple. Even from far away Molly could smell it. It smelt strongly of Blackberries and dark chocolate. It had an incredibly thick, gooey texture and was gloping off the spoon Amber was holding up and plopping into the mixture.

"You moron! It's supposed to be yellow, not purple! It's the complete opposite!" Amber was groaning.

"Hey, purple isn't opposite yellow, blue is!" Sirius commented, desperately flicking through the book.

Amber sighed and looked at the mixture again "it's the opposite" she held the potion in his face "Does this smell like Pineapple and marshmallows to you?"

He sniffed and shook his head "Nope, definitely not" She sighed again.

"Does it even smell light and summery?" He shook his head again.

"No, more like hot and wintery, hey, isn't it supposed to be thin?"

Amber let the contents of the spoon plop back into the cauldron "Yeah, I think we have a problem"

"Oh really?" Sirius said in mock surprise, throwing the book down.

Professor Slughorn was now walking around looking at the potions. He came to Molly and Remus.

"Well done you two! This potion is fabulous! I have a feeling that you will be getting an 'O'!" he winked at them and, then sighed and went to look at the rest of the class.

He came to Amber and Sirius "Congratulations" he said dryly to his least favourite potions students. "You have made a perfect melting potion. You may notice that this is the complete opposite of a setting potion" he sighed and walked out of the room.

"Lily you're in charge, I need some headache potion" Lily smiled then glanced back at Amber and Sirius, wincing.

"Hmmm, maybe if we add some wood nymph root powder it will-" the purple potion blew up.

Drops sprayed over the whole class. They froze for a moment then started screaming.

Wherever the potion had hit them they had started to melt. Some people, like Lily and Tai, only had a couple of drops, which wasn't so bad. Some People like Paul Patil had received entire face fulls and now had their face dripping off them.

Molly had held her hands in front of her face, now her hands were two gooey masses. She gasped and whirled around, accidentally spraying some of her potion over her hands.

To her surprise they immediately formed back into normal hands.

She tapped Remus on the shoulder, he was relatively normal. Apart from the fact that his sandy brown hair was dripping off.

"Remus" she grabbed a vile of the potion and poured it over his hair, it returned to normal. He blinked and looked at the potion.

"Good idea!" he exclaimed grabbing some. Molly took some more and went down to her friends.

Lily was prodding a small spot on her face looking disgusted and Tai just had a dot on his nose. Molly gave them a few drops and they went to help.

Tia seemed to have swallowed some; she couldn't speak since her mouth was turning to goo. Molly quickly put some potion down Tia's throat before it completely melted. Peters chin was dripping off. Molly healed it quickly.

Peter went off to help the other melting people; Tia still looked a little sick and couldn't speak. Molly lead her to the cauldron to drink some more.

Finally almost everyone was normal. Tia still couldn't talk and looked like she was going to be sick, but was okay.

Nobody had any idea of what to do about Sirius and Amber. Having being closest to the cauldron when it exploded they best resembled…puddles of pink, black and in Ambers case, blonde.

Professor Slughorn came strolling in "Goodness! What has happened here?"

When they had explained he sighed and went over to Amber and Sirius "Could somebody get two mops and buckets?" Lily and Tai ran out of the room. James glared after them "Magic doesn't work in a case like this" Slughorn explained.

They came back in. Lily mopped up Amber and Tai handed the bucket to James to mop up Sirius.

Slughorn hovered over them and watched them work "Make sure that you get all of them, oh and don't mix them, that could end up horribly".

They finished mopping their friends up and took them to the Hospital wing. Lily and James carried Amber and Sirius.

Tia followed, since she still was a bit internally melted, and Molly helped her, enchanting the cauldron with the rest of the potion to follow them.

Madame Pomfrey sighed when they came in "Sometimes I think that you lot spend more time in here than me. So what is in the buckets?"

Lily looked down at the contents of the bucket "Errrr, Amber and Sirius"

Madame Pomfrey just sighed "Why does that not surprise me?" she conjured up two human sized blocks of metal. "Do any of you have photos of them?" she asked.

James pulled out a photo of Sirius almost immediately. Lily looked at her friends.

Tia held up a photo of Amber that morning. In the picture she was looking annoyed and swatting away birds.

Madame Pomfrey took them and sent a messenger to get professor Flitwik.

He came hurrying and looked at the pictures, then pointed his wand at the blocks of metal. They glowed red and melted down until they looked exactly like Amber and Sirius-without the colour.

"Hmmm, good job professor!" lily exclaimed, looking at the metal statue of her friend.

James grinned and tapped the metal Sirius on the nose "Sirius will want this when he's…set"

Madame Pomfrey then took the Sirius in a bucket from James and poured it into the metal cast. She did the same with Amber, then tipped half of the setting potion into the casts.

She put a layer of ice around the statues then put them in a corner, putting the curtains around them so that nobody would ask questions.

Next she turned to Tia "And what is wrong with you dear?" Tia tried to speak but couldn't.

"She swallowed some of the potion, I don't think I got to her soon enough" Molly explained, sounding upset.

Madame Pomfrey winced slightly "Ooooh, internal melting is always a terrible ordeal. She will have to stay here for a few days and take some very horrible potions and charms.

Tia paled slightly but then went to lie on the bed Madame Pomfrey pointed to her. She had suffered many bad quiddich, and muggle sport injury's so she was used to it.

Madame Pomfrey decided to go down to Professor Slughorn to get some potion ingredients for Tia.

She turned to Lily, Molly and James. "You four may as well go down to lunch. You can come back and visit her after class"

They went down and sat with James, Remus and Peter, much to Lily's displeasure.

"Ooooh! Ham and noodle soup!" James exclaimed as he and Peter dug into the food.

Molly, Lily, Tia and Remus just stared down into theirs. The pink and yellow blob looked a bit too familiar…

"I think I'll stick with bread" said Lily, grabbing a roll.

"Me too" came two echo's.

Peter and James just raised their eyebrows at them "Suit yourself" James shrugged.

**Okay, well this is the big even that sort of makes the storyline, so I'm happy that I've done it. Sorry that I haven updated in a while. **

**I had this week long horse riding camp sort of thing and then we went to Brisbane for the weekend and I've been getting ready to go back to school… **

**Anyway, I hope that you liked this chapter. I think that it's probably my favourite so far. **

**I'll start on the next chapter as soon as I get a few reviews for this one. **

**Sorry if a bit of the last chapter was a bit confusing. I had been about to write something, then forgotten about it. I'm going to look back and check it when I get a chance.**

**Midnight Filly **


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or James Potter or Lily Potter/Evans or…you get the picture.**

Amber was cold. Colder than she had ever felt before. She felt like a layer of ice was pressing in on her, trapping her. She tried to open her eyes, but something was keeping them down.

She then tried to move, but the coldness kept her stiff. She also felt weaker than she had ever felt in her life. She hated feeling weak.

She tried to yell but all that came out of her lips was a weak, muffled groan.

Suddenly a chink of light and warmth opened at her head and slowly made its way down her face.

Soon she was staring into the face of Madame Pomfrey.

"Mhhhhwha?" she moaned. Madame Pomfrey sighed in relief.

"Oh, good, everything worked out properly, come on then have a lie down"

Amber slowly peeled herself out of the metal case and looked around wearily.

She was in the hospital wing, staring down at a metal cast that was an exact replica of her. Next to that was an exact replica of Sirius.

She slowly raised a hand to her head. She felt…sticky for some reason. Madame Pomfrey was walking around her and brushing some sweet yellow potion on her.

Potion…potion…that rung a bell.

Madame Pomfrey pushed her down onto a bed. "Rest is what you need!"

"Hey Amber" Amber looked around. Tia was sitting in a bed next to her and holding a goblet that was smoking a horrible brown colour.

"I was starting to think that you would never reset. You've been down for three days now" she sighed and held up the goblet. Amber saw that the contents was thick and bubbling.

"I swallowed some of your potion and have been here for three days. Now I just have to drink this and can go"

She wrinkled her nose and looked down at it.

Madame Pomfrey sighed "Just take the potion and then you can get back on your broom"

Tia sighed as well, the gulped down the potion and made a face. Then hopped up "I'm gonna go and try to catch up on all the quiddich that James gained on me while I was sick!" she waved to Amber and shot out of the room.

"Miss Nightingale? Someone is here to see you"

"Go away!" Amber moaned. A tall stiff figure strode into the room. He had neatly combed blonde hair and sharp grey eyes. He had on a crisp grey suit, and a frown.

Amber slumped against the pillows. This was the last person on heath that she wanted to see now…actually, it was the last person on earth she ever wanted to see.

"Father" she said stiffly. He sat down on the bed opposite her.

"Amber. I never got to finish telling you why it would be a good idea to transfer schools. You rushed off like a maniac before I could. I told your headmaster and he says that he trusts my opinion"

"He says that to everyone!" Amber muttered.

"Anyhow. He managed to convince me that staying at a wizard school would be the best for your future. However, after reading some documented papers I have decided that your future schooling life will continue at Crolakabreath"

Amber's fists clenched "I am not moving to Australia dad!"

He frowned at her again "You have always like it there when we went to visit the Groman's"

"But my life is here! I have finally settled into this school. I have friends, and the teachers know me and everyone doesn't hate me. I'm not changing schools again just because you want a change of scenery!"

"Abigail agrees with me that it will be for the best. We can sell our stock and move there then start a new. My business has a much better position for me in Australia. The school is good. We're only doing what's best for you"

"It sure sounds like what's best for you! I don't care what your girlfriend thinks. You just want her to marry you. I told my friends that she's my stepmother because I didn't want them to think that my dad is some kind of-"

"- you will settle in soon enough. You've always been the strange new girl at schools, you're used to it. If you want to continue talking about it then you can bring your friends to the Headmasters office in a week's time."

He stood up and strode towards the door, stopping to give her a slight sneer. "Though I doubt that you even have many"

Amber collapsed onto her pillows. Why did he always do this? Just when she was settling into a school he had to go and move.

"Mmmdmmph" came a moan from Sirius's case.

"Black has set" she said to Madame Pomfrey, who quickly hurried over and opened him.

He was taken out and put on the bed next to Amber. He rolled over so he could face her and winced "What happened?"

She sighed; she was still feeling weak from the encounter with her father and the meltation.

"When I added the Nymph root powder that supposedly thins potions it blew up and we melted"

She sighed again. "Was anybody hurt?" he asked.

"Well Tia swallowed some and melted internally but is fine now" Sirius looked horrified at the idea of melting internally.

Madame Pomfrey bustled over to their beds, handing them each a bowl of jelly.

"Jelly?" Amber asked, looking at the clear, golden coloured cubes.

"Yes, it helps you set properly" Madame Pomfrey said, looking over at Sirius who was already gulping his green jelly down.

Sirius finished his and sat up "Wow that stuff helps! C'mon Nightingale, eat up, it matches your name!"

"Ha ha" She said dryly, looking down at the amber coloured jelly. She shrugged then gulped it down.

She felt a sudden rush of energy and sat up, then dropped back down again. "Wow, it does work"

Madame Pomfrey came over again "There is someone else here to see you" she sighed.

"GO AWAY!" Amber yelled.

A slightly scared looking Remus came into the room "Well, obviously you have finally reset properly" he commented.

Amber flopped back onto her bed "Oh, its you"

"Hey Mooney!" Sirius tried to grin weakly "Whats happened in the past…" he glanced at Amber

"Three" she moaned

"The past three days?"

Remus sighed "A lot actually, there is a nice full moon tonight" he looked pointedly at Sirius "And Kitty decided that orange is the new blue"

"Oh darn" commented Amber sarcastically

"And" he sighed "Well, I really think that James has lost all purpose to his life"

"Explanation please?" Sirius asked.

"Well, Lily really blew up at him, really badly for her. He was hexing Nadia, you know, the only Slytherin that is actually nice? Well Lily didn't…err…appreciate this. She started yelling about how he was just a big headed conceited jerk and that she would rather spend a lifetime with Malfoy and Snape than one minute with him, and some other stuff"

"Woah, she's starting to sound like me!" Amber exclaimed.

"Yeah, well, James didn't really take this very well. He…to put it simply, has stopped…well living. He has spent all weekend just lying in bed, doing nothing. He barely even ate anything. Then on Monday when we got him up, he was completely listless. Snape tripped him over and he didn't even move, he just lay there until we dragged him off to class."

"Merlin" Murmured Sirius. "Where is he now?"

Remus motioned towards the door "Peter's dragging him over. Lily isn't really taking it well either. She's started storming around the castle, fuming mad and scaring everybody"

At that moment the door opened and they saw Peter, dragging James along by the ankle.

"Prongs!" Sirius exclaimed.

James's eyes brightened and he leapt up "Padfoot! You're actually alive!"

He hurried over to Sirius then suddenly remembered why he had been so depressed "Lily said that she hated me!" he exclaimed

"So we heard" Said Amber dryly.

James just sighed again "I don't know what to do. I can't move on, you can't make me move on! And this has been cutting into my quiddich practise"

Amber raised her eyebrows

James sighed and started to make his way back to the Gryffindor common room "I'm gonna go and do my charms homework"

Sirius looked puzzled at the short visit.

Peter sighed, having just dragged him all the way there and followed.

Remus smiled at them and then got up "I better go and make sure that he doesn't try to kill himself or something" he walked off.

"Hmmm, he is acting strangely" Amber mused.

"Yeah, I wish that Lily would just agree to go out with him just once"

Amber nodded a little too enthusiastically and had to hold her head steady "Ouch. Yeah, and then she could dump him and they could move on"

Sirius thought for a moment "Yeah that could work"

Amber just sighed "they're just too stupid to see that. I just wish they could stop ruining each others lives"

A thoughtful look came across Sirius's face "You know, I have had a brainwave. Who know's James better than me? And who knows Lily better than you? I mean you two have been worst enemy's and now best friends"

Amber frowned "Where are you going with this?"

"Well, they could be perfect for each other; they just need a little push to see that. And who better to give them that push than us?"

Amber stared at him, wide eyed "No way! Black, in case you haven't noticed, we can barely say two words to each other without fighting. And, just a few days ago you pulled a stupid and dangerous prank on one of my best friends, which, by the way, I still haven't forgiven you for"

But Sirius had already started planning "It's perfect. We can use our knowledge and skills-"

"-Oh, you mean our potion skills?"

"-and resources to bring them together slowly but surely. Kitty will probably agree to help us. She loves matchmaking, And has dumped more than half the guys in her year…and some of the other years. And Regulus might too. Merlin, he's been rejected so many times, more than half by Kitty, that he will know just how James is feeling. It's the perfect plan. Don't you want him to stop annoying you constantly by asking her out?"

Amber paused and thought for a moment. Hmmm, a life without Potter constantly in her and Lily's faces. A time without incredibly annoying pranks to desperately try to get Lily's attention, and without a fuming mad Lily.

"Okay" she said.

Sirius grinned "Meet me tomorrow in the library, we should be out by then"

Amber wrinkled her nose "Why the library?"

Sirius just sighed "do you never watch muggle Vellytision spy shows?"

"No"

Lily stared hard at her plate. She hated James Potter so much. How dare he hurt people just because they were weaker than him or a Slytherin?

"Lily, calm down. You're really starting to worry me" Molly said gently.

Lily sighed "I know, I'm sorry. He's just so much of a jerk!"

Molly just went back to her cereal. Breakfast was pretty quiet. Amber and Sirius were still resting, Tia had gotten up early and was training, and James was sulking in his room.

Lily and Molly were sitting with Remus and Peter.

Molly looked hopefully up at the window where the owls came in "I wonder how much longer the post will be"

"No too long" Said a voice. They turned to see Kitty and Opal coming up to them. As usual Opal was hiding behind her long, straight hair, and Kitty was neatly groomed, today she was wearing an orange cat collar.

Kitty sat down next to Remus and Opal sat next to Lily. "You guys looked lonely. I am making a huge sacrifice by sitting with you today since I really should be working on getting Diggory's attention"

She waved her hand towards the Hufflepuff table where Amos Diggory was sitting.

Opal rolled her eyes "She's playing hard to get"

"How can you play hard to get if he doesn't notice you?" Peter asked.

Kitty just sighed "That's the whole point!" she said, leaving him very confused.

The post came swooping in. A sleek, cream coloured owl swooped next to Molly and she gave a happy squeak, immediately unwrapping the package.

It was a copy of Witch Weekly. Molly immediately started reading it.

Remus and Peter looked at Molly weirdly, obviously wondering why she was so obsessed about a Magazine.

Opal, who already knew why, busied herself in buttering her toast. Kitty was two busy looking at her nails to notice.

Lily leaned in and lowered her voice so that Molly wouldn't hear "Molly's mother works for Witch Weekly. She writes the travel articles so she's never at home, since she is usually somewhere else around the world. Molly hardly ever gets to see her. At home she had her father and two older brothers to look after her. Reading her mothers and other articles are the only way that she can feel close to her mum"

Lily leant back. Remus, Peter and Kitty were all frowning. Lily sighed. Not many people understood why her friend acted the way she did.

There was a strange sounding screech in the hall. Lily looked up, confused. She immediately spotted Amigo. He was flying very strangely and looked a bit weird as well. Lily gasped; he was turning back into a horse, at the worst possible time.

He crashed into the ground, and slowly rose taking on the form of a horse again.

Lily rushed forwards to try and get him, but Amigo, Angry and confused from turning into a horse then into an owl, then shrinking, gave a shrill, angry whinny and galloped out the open doors and onto the grounds.

Tia swooped around and scored another goal. She sighed; it got tiring scoring goals when nobody was trying to stop you.

She threw the quaffle back into its box and flew back to the broom shed. She decided to ask Ambers cousin to practise with her sometime.

Suddenly an angry screech came from the direction of the castle. She whirled around and saw Amigo galloping out of the castle and heading towards the Forbidden Forest.

Tia whirled around and swooped after him. He galloped into the forest. She paused, and then flew after him.

Usually her broom would easily be able to catch up with him, but she had to duck and swerve to miss the trees.

She heard more hoof beats and gasped, and then flew up into a tree. The Centaur herd wasn't something that she wanted to deal with now.

"Who dares enter our territory?" A voice asked. An angry black centaur with wild black hair came forwards.

Amigo gave a sad whinny. He was cold, tired, hungry, and had magic used on him.

Tia bit her lip. This was not good. But the centaur's seemed sorry for the pathetic looking horse.

"We can take him to the thresals" A chestnut said.

Tia wondered what on earth a thresal was, but she decided that they would be okay, and swooped back to the castle.

"So he's in the Forbidden Forest?" Tai asked. Tia nodded.

She had gotten back and told Lily, Molly, Kitty, Opal, Remus and Peter. Then Lily had insisted on telling Tai.

He sighed and shrugged "We'll it could have been worse" He smiled and waved "I have to get to class"

Lily sighed as he walked off "Why is he always so nice and understanding?"

Kitty shrugged, and then spotted Amos leaving the great hall. She grabbed Opals arm and dragged her off "Quick! I have some ignoring to do!"

Remus and Peter went to finish their breakfast. Lily started to follow them but Molly grabbed her arm.

"Lily, I just read a page in my magazine that tells you about some books about how to get a guy to like you and stuff. There's this really good looking one that I was going to check out, wanna come with me?"

Lily thought for a moment. Usually she wouldn't read that kind of book, or take the advice. However… "Sure!" she agreed.

Molly smiled and they went back to their table.

Sirius paced in front of his very cleverly drawn plan "To bring Lily Evans and James Potter together, we must use the four basic principals of matchmaking"

Amber just rolled her eyes. She was slumped in a chair in front of him watching him pace in front of the blackboard covered in messy writing.

"Number one. Attraction. We need to make them see what they have in common. But not to bluntly"

"Oh, that will be easy. It's not like we're the two bluntest people in the school or anything"

"Number two. Friendship. They need to be at least sort of friends"

"Great, now we have to make them friends as well!"

"Number three. Company. Their friends need to get along as well"

"Hmmm, well that one's pretty easy"

"And number four. Arguments-"

"-What?"

"-They need to be able to argue and make up again"

She squinted at him "Let me guess, you made these principals up?"

"Well, yeah" Sirius folded his arms and frowned at her "Is there a problem with that?"

She just shrugged "Well you obviously don't use it for yourself. The four principals of a girl for Sirius Black, she has a perfect figure, she's beautiful, she coats herself with makeup and she only has half a brain"

Sirius just stared at her "Yeah, you would think that. So what are Amber Nightingale's principals of a boy?"

Amber thought a moment "Hmmm, strong, friendly, tough, and is not human"

Sirius just rolled his eyes. He pointed to his blackboard and shrunk it so that it fit in his pocket.

"Hey Amber, Sirius…what are you two doing here together?"

They both whirled around and stared into the faces of Lily and Molly.

They had both agreed that nobody could ever know about their plan.

_Think Black, think. What reasons would two practically arch enemy's have for willingly spending time in a library together apart from setting their friends up? Think…think…there must be loads of reasons, like…_

"We have some news, we're going out"

_Errrr, apart from that one_

"WHAT!" exclaimed Lily, Molly and Amber. The other two stared at Amber. Wondering why she shouted as well.

"Err, I uh…thought that we weren't going to…uh tell them?" Said Amber glaring at Sirius.

"You know we couldn't keep it a secret Nighti- uhh, Jewel?"

Amber mimed being sick behind her friends backs.

Lily and Molly were still staring at Sirius. "both being melted we realised that we were meant for each other, I mean, think of all the things we have in common. Were both bad at potions, both incredibly blunt both-"

A glare from Amber told him that he was going too far.

"Wow, well, uh…congratulations?" Lily said, sounding incredibly confused.

"We better go and look for the book" said Molly. Who was looking surprised, but still slightly uncomfortable around Sirius.

She and Lily made their way over to one of the book sections.

Amber immediately grabbed the biggest book she could see and whacked Sirius over the head with it.

"**Going out!" **she said, looking as if she was going to blow something else up.

"Hey, I was under a lot of pressure, you're friends are intimidating!"

"You could have said we needed to re-do the setting potion" whack "you could have said that Madame Pomfrey wanted us to get her a book to help set us properly" whack "**You could have said that I was dying and needed the blood of a pureblood to survive!" **whack, whack, whack.

"Ouch! You are going to give me permanent brain damage"

"That's the idea!" Amber suddenly groaned and sunk down onto a chair "My reputation is ruined!"

Sirius frowned, puzzled "What reputation?"

"Exactly!"

Amber sighed "Well at least there's one good thing about this, now we can say that whenever we need to plan something it's a…date" she sounded disgusted at the idea.

Amber turned to see Sirius observing her.

"What?"

"Well, I was thinking, now that were 'dating' could you maybe do something about your hair? It really is a mess. I wouldn't want people thinking that I would sink so low as to-"

WHACK.

"Okay, so from now on we have to meet by some tapestry of a weirdo teaching trolls how to dance?"

Sirius nodded "Yup"

Amber just shook her head, and then turned to leave. Sirius held out his hand to stop her "Wait, you know what you said before about preferring animals to humans?"

Amber nodded slowly "Yeeeees"

"Well does Molly think like that?"

Amber frowned "Probably not, but she does love animals"

Sirius smiled "Do you know her favourite animals?"

"Sure, a Cocker spaniel and a dove. Why?"

"Because I think that I've found a way to apologise"

**PLESE READ!**

**A/N: I'm so glad that I finally got to write this chapter! It was the first chapter I thought of when I decided to write this story. I hope that you liked it. **

**Okay, I need some suggestions of some ways that Amber and Sirius will try to get Lily and James together. I don't care how weird and wacky they are. Remember this is Amber and Sirius we're talking about.**

**As you can see I've changed the layout of my stories a little, just thought that it made them look neater. **

**Midnight filly**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. JK Rowling does**

**Thanks to Mad Over Mooney for coming up with the idea of Amber and Sirius's first matchmaking attempt. **

**

* * *

**Bang! 

Molly stared at the large box that had landed in front of her.

It was breakfast and Molly, Tia and Lily were still waiting for Amber who seemed to be taking a rather long detour.

It took five of the schools owls to carry the box. Molly peered at it cautiously. There were a few holes at the top for some reason. On the top of the box it had 'Molly White. CAUTION Do Not Tip Over'

Suddenly a scratching and whimpering sound started coming from it.

Molly gave a gasp and jumped back. She looked over at Lily and Tia. They hadn't even noticed. Lily was staring into space and playing with her hair, while Tia was hurriedly finishing her Charms homework.

"Um…guys?" she said, still looking nervously at the box.

"Bombs tick and howlers are smaller" Tia said, not even looking up from her work.

Molly frowned blankly for a second "Ohhhhhh" she prodded Lily "Lily help me open this"

Lily jumped "Oh, okay" she looked at the box "Who sent this?"

Molly shrugged "I don't know. It must be someone inside Hogwarts since these are the school owls and it says Molly. Anything my family sends says Margaret"

Tia finally finished scribbling "Well there might be a card inside. Open it and see"

Lily and Molly freed the owls and started opening the box. It was still whimpering.

Molly finally opened it. A puppy popped its head out. It was a rich golden brown with long wavy ears, a silky coat and bright eyes. The strangest thing about it was that it had two creamy white wings coming out of its shoulders.

Molly squealed excitedly and pulled the puppy out of the box. Lily saw a card at the bottom and pulled it out.

"It says. **We're really sorry that our prank backfired on you. Please accept my-_our_-whatever sincerest apologies. From the Marauders. Ps. it's a girl. You can probably get the stuff for her at the Hogsmede trip tomorrow**" Lily read.

"I forgive them, I forgive them!" Molly exclaimed, scratching the puppy on the head. "But what should I call her?"

They watched at the Cocker spaniel shot into the air and started doing loops.

"Hi…guys I…see that you…got…package" A voice panted. They turned around and looked at Amber who had rushed up and looked out of breath.

Tia stared at her "Where have you been?" she asked.

Amber just waved a hand "Not…important"

Lily smirked "She's probably been with her new boyfriend"

Tia looked at her surprised "You have a boyfriend, who?"

Molly smirked as well "Black"

Tia turned around, surprised and knocked over her goblet, spilling pumpkin juice all over the tablecloth. Molly's puppy soon came to lap it up.

"Wha? Really, Black?" Tia asked.

Amber nodded glumly. It was too early to act happy.

"Wow. That's really…well…surprising. He never really seemed the type to like outgoing, not absolutely gorgeous, smart girls" Tia commented.

Amber sighed "Being melted, stuff in common, bla, bla, bla"

"I wonder if Black has told his friends yet?" asked Molly.

Amber just groaned.

* * *

"So, you rush in, late to breakfast and expect us not to comment?" Remus asked Sirius sceptically.

"And you're all hot and out of breath. Padfoot, incase you hadn't noticed that is not classified as attractive!" James exclaimed.

Sirius sighed "I had things to do, places to be" he sat down and started eating, hoping that they would drop the subject.

"You are definitely hiding something from us" Said Peter.

Sirius slowly turned to him "Whyyyyyy?"

"Because Nightingale just rushed in and is hot and out of breath as well"

James and Remus turned and looked over at Amber; she was slumped in her chair and panting. Sirius sunk down in his chair. He had been hoping that they hadn't noticed.

"Well, well, well. Have Sirius and Amber gotten into another fight?" Remus asked.

"Noweregoingout" Sirius said quickly.

"Please repeat" asked James.

"Well, we melted and now know that we have stuff in common and all that and were going out and my head hurts"

His friends all stared at him for a minute before bursting out laughing.

"Ha! Oh that's a good one!" Peter laughed.

"I actually believed you there for a second!" choked James.

"Yeah, sure. You're going to stop dating the pretty dumb girls for a girl whom you are in constant vengeance with" Remus chuckled.

At that moment Tia and Molly chose to walk by "Hey Black, congrats on somehow managing to get Amber to go out with you and still managing to stay in one piece" Tia called.

Sirius turned a deep crimson. James's mouth dropped open. In all the years that he had know Sirius, he had never seen his friend even go slightly pink.

"Merlin! He's serious!" James exclaimed. Peter and Remus's mouths dropped open as well.

"Yes, he is Sirius" said a cool voice. Kitty and Opal had strolled up to them. Kitty leant casually on Remus's chair. Watching as Amos and his friends left the great hall.

One of his friends turned and saw Kitty then tapped Amos on the shoulder.

Kitty flipped her head over her shoulder and turned to Sirius "Black, will you please stop blushing, it's clashing with my collar" she motioned towards the lime green collar she was wearing.

"Oh, and Congratulations on getting Amber to go out with you and still being in one piece"

"How do you know about that?" James asked.

"Darling, I know everything"

"I told her" Opal muttered.

"Anyway, your taste is improving. Amber is much better than Cassandra"

Sirius froze "Cassandra?"

Peter nodded "Yeah, by the way when did you dump her?"

"I see that Diggory is starting to notice you" Remus commented.

Kitty grinned "Yeah tonight I'm planning to work on step number three-"

"-Sorry to tell you this, but tonight there's a nice shiny full moon and-"

Kitty paled and a hand flew to her mouth. She spun around and fled from the hall.

"Kitty, wait!" Opal ran after her.

Remus's shoulder's drooped and he sighed.

"What's up with Kitty?" James asked, concerned.

"Well, um…when she…um…on the holidays I…well"

"Spit it out!" said Peter.

"I bit her"

"What!"

"Kitty?"

"So she's a werewolf now and…she isn't taking it that well. So she's coming with us"

They all looked at Sirius who hadn't commented yet "I am so dead!"

* * *

"Okay, well I've only really had some rough ideas so far and- What is your problem?"

Amber glared at Sirius. They were going to the Room of Requirement and every time a group of girls walked past them Sirius would duck behind her.

"Um…well you know how I was going out with Cassandra May?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, I uh…kinda forgot to mention to her that I stopped going out with her"

Amber turned to him "Ha! You're cheating on me!"

Sirius blinked "You know, most girls would find that-"

"**BLACK!" **

A girl with long, shiny brown hair was striding towards him, a furious look on her face.

"Aaaaaaaah!" Sirius ducked behind Amber again.

"You're on your own" said Amber, rushing off to the tapestry.

The last thing she heard before she was out of hearing range was Sirius saying "Hi Cassy, how's school going?"

Amber rolled her eyes. Black really needed to learn more about girls.

* * *

"Took you long enough" Amber commented, when Sirius finally stumbled up to her.

He looked relatively normal, except for the fact that he had a bright red, enflamed, hand print across his face.

Amber giggled "You better not go near Kitty; you'll clash horribly with her"

Sirius glared at her "You're enjoying this aren't you?"

She smirked, then turned to the blank wall. "So how does this thing work again? I still wasn't clear on it when we had to rush off this morning"

"You walk in front of the wall, think what you need, it appears" Sirius said, dizzily.

"If I had known about this before I could have kept Amigo here" She muttered to herself.

She paused; she hadn't seen Amigo in ages, where could he be? Amber shrugged and then walked in front of the wall until the sleek wooden door that she had seen that morning appeared.

They went into the room. It looked exactly like it had before. There was a large wooden table in the middle with two chairs.

Along the sides were book cases, filled with books on matchmaking and secret agent books. Spread out on the roof was an enlarged copy of the Marauders Map.

Amber sat down "So, any ideas?"

"Yes" a pot of Mountfielderes Magic healing cream appeared on the table and Sirius put it on the still throbbing hand print.

"Great, now any ideas about Lily and James? We don't have that much time; lunch only goes for about an hour"

Sirius shrugged "I dunno, too bad they aren't partnered in potions. I don't believe you convinced me to skip lunch"

Amber thought for a moment "We don't have any other classes that we would be paired up in. But we really just need them to sit together or something"

"Hey, Lily's taking Care Of Magical Creatures with you right?"

"Yeeah. She just joined this year"

"Well so are James and Remus, James used to do Ancient Runes but it got too confusing for him"

"So we just somehow need to get them to share books. Hmmm, in class there are usually two groups. The experienced students-Remus and me and some other people, and the ones that need more help. Since they've both just joined this year they'll be in the less experienced group"

"Who else is in that group?"

"Cassandra and her clones, three Ravenclaws who she never talks to, this guy with strange hair, and Tia"

"So, we can steal her text book and she will have to share with James!"

"Hmmmm, it could work…Oh, but we would have to make Tia sick or something so that she can't share with Lily"

"Oh…yeah. How would we do that?"

"Maybe we should make another potion?" Amber commented dryly.

"Or we could just use this" Sirius held up a bottle that had just appeared on the table that said 'Magical flu potion'

"Yeah, and I'll have to make sure that we're doing something that can be hard and easy so that we work in separate groups"

"Wow! We actually came up with a smart plan!"

"I know! It's so simple. What could possibly go wrong?"

* * *

"Maerikeos" Amber whispered, discreetly pointing her wand at Molly's face.

"Hey, Molly, You've got a mark on your face" Lily said, pointing.

Molly gasped "Where?"

"There"

Molly grabbed Lily's arm and tugged her over to the closest girl's bathroom. "Show me!"

"Mind my bag" Lily called over her shoulder.

Amber grinned. She knew her friends so well.

Their plan was in action, ready for their next lesson. Amber had requested to professor Kettleburn that their fist lesson would be Pegasus's. He had agreed that it would be a great idea.

Now she just had to take Lily's book.

"Hey, Tia?" James called.

Tia turned around "Yeah? Ah-choo!"

"Bless you. Do you know where the snitch has gone? I can't find it anywhere"

Tia frowned and hurried over to the broom cupboard "Really? It should be right here"

Sirius held his thumbs up behind their backs, and showed Amber the snitch.

Amber nodded and quickly grabbed the book out of Lily's bag and stuffed it into her own.

"I better get to Ancient Runes" Molly said, coming out of the bathroom and grabbing her bag. "Bye guys"

Lily picked up her bag and they went over to Tia.

Amber nodded at Sirius and he let the snitch go.

"Hey, there it is!" James exclaimed, leaping up and catching it.

Tia turned to her friends "Okay, Ah-choo! Let's go"

Amber smiled. This matchmaking thing was turning out much easier than she had expected.

* * *

"Hey Amber. Guess what! We're doing pegasi in class today!" Remus hurried up to them, looking excited.

"I think that the correct term is Pegasus" Amber corrected him.

"Hmmm, maybe. But this is great! I've wanted to learn about them for ages"

"Ah-choo!" Tia sneezed again. They all turned and looked at her.

"Dorry, I'b beed sneeding all day doday" she sniffed.

Lily handed her a tissue.

"Ah-choo! Danks"

Amber looked at her friend, pretending to be concerned. She knew that the bug would only last a day.

"Tia, is there something wrong? You don't sound too good"

"I- Ah-choo!-Dond no"

Remus felt her forehead "You've definitely got a temperature"

Tia sneezed again. "Bless you. I think you better go back to the castle and rest, you don't want to spread germs" Lily said worriedly.

Remus nodded "Yeah, and Pegasus are pretty sensitive"

Tia sighed "Your righd, I'd bedda go"

She turned and went back up to the castle.

"Amber, Remus, how good to see you two again" Professor Kettleburn came up to them.

"Hi Professor!" Amber grinned.

Remus nodded "Good afternoon"

"So, I see that we have some new students" The professor looked at Lily and James.

"Oh, this is Lily, and this is James. What are the Pegasus like?" Amber asked.

"You will see. Hello Lily and James. You two will be going in the beginner class at first"

They nodded. He walked off to go and get the Pegasus ready.

"So do you want to be partners again this year?" Remus asked Amber

"Sure, but you only like being partnered with me because then you always get O's!"

"Who can blame me?" Amber just rolled her eyes.

"Hey there Remus" Said a silky voice. They all turned to see Cassandra who had just come up behind them.

"You wouldn't happen to have a partner already would you?" she battered her eyelashes.

Lily wrinkled her nose. She was starting to understand why Amber hated Cassandra so much. How could he stand her being so obvious? She glanced guiltily at James. _That was different_ she told herself.

"Yes, actually. I'm with Amber"

Cassandra frowned then smiled again "Oh, well I guess you just want to get O's" she swept pat them and banged into Amber.

"Boyfriend stealer!" she hissed.

"Best friend stealer" Amber hissed back.

Lily was about to ask what Amber meant, but Professor Kettleburn walked up to them before she could.

"Okay, guys. Everyone here? Good, well, today we're going to learn about Pegasus. Follow me, and I'll show them to you"

They walked around to a large paddock where one of the Pegasus was already tied up.

"This is the mare; the beginner class will be working with her"

Lily looked at the Pegasus. She was rich brown with a shiny black mane and tail and black wings.

"I thought that they were white?" she asked.

Professor Kettleburn shook his head "No, only a small percent are white"

James looked around "Where is the other one"

"Hagrid is coming with him"

At that moment Hagrid came into the paddock leading the other Pegasus. The Pegasus had a black halter on with a long thick chain that Hagrid was holding

Well, he was more dragging him than leading. The creature was bucking and whirling around and trying to bite Hagrid, all the while in the air flapping its enormous wings and trying to escape.

"That one is a Stallion" Professor Kettleburn said, pointing.

Lily looked at it, glad that she would be working with the calm mare. The stallion was a light silver grey, with darker dapples on its back and legs. His mane, tail and wings were light silver.

"What are their names?" Remus asked.

"The mare is Rose and the stallion is Thorn"

"Ooooh, original" Amber teased the Professor.

"Do you two want to give Hagrid a hand with Thorn?" Professor Kettleburn asked.

Remus and Amber immediately shot into the paddock. The rest of the advanced group followed more slowly.

They beginners went over to start patting Rose. Lily and James began to follow.

"So, it's pretty good to start with such an interesting lesson hey?" James asked.

Lily looked at him surprised "Yeah, I guess we're-" she cut off and turned around, hearing somebody run up behind them.

"Sorry, I'm late professor, I only just found out where this class was. I'm new, and got a bit lost"

Lily's eyes brightened at the familiar accent "Tai!"

"Suit" James grumbled he had almost had a civil conversation with Lily; now this guy had to butt in didn't he? He had probably planned all of this. Making Tia sick so that he could spend the entire lesson with Lily.

"Hi Lily, James" Tai smiled.

James's glare deepened. How did this guy know his name?

They went over too look at Rose.

Remus was now holding Thorn's chain. He was ducking a twisting to stop the animal from biting him.

Amber had somehow managed to get onto Thorns back and was trying to get him under control.

Tai was watching them as well "Sit deeper!" he called out to his cousin.

Amber glanced over and nodded, then tried it. Thorn curved his back and sunk down onto the ground.

"How did you know that would work?" Lily asked, impressed.

"Well, it works on a bucking horse, or when you want them to stop, so why not on a Pegasus?"

James just muttered something under his breath.

Lily looked at him, wide eyed "You can ride?"

Tai shrugged "Sure, I'm not as good as Amber but I'm pretty good"

James snorted "You horse ride? No wonder you're the Keeper. Horse riding isn't any exercise; you just sit there while the horse does all the work"

Tai frowned slightly "Don't let Amber hear you say that, She overheard one of my friends telling me and…well…they say that he'll be out of St Mungos next month"

"How long ago did he say that?" Lily asked

"Two years, Amber never really liked him that much anyway. She sort of combined her mule spell with a jelly legs and some sort of plant spells. No one has really figured out how to cure it yet"

James just folded his arms.

"Okay, class. Hagrid will be teaching you today since I'll be busy with the advanced class" Professor Kettleburn pointed to where Thorn had now settled down and Amber was stroking his neck while Remus checked his hooves. No body else seemed to want to get near him.

Hagrid came over to them. "Well class" he said, looking thrilled that he was able to teach the lesson.

"Open your books to chapter twelve, Pegasus"

Lily reached into her bag to where she knew her book was. She frowned in confusion. It wasn't there.

She searched though it a bit more, but still couldn't seem to find the book. Finally she tried tipping the entire contents out of her bag and searching through it. But it wasn't in there.

She gave a small huff of annoyance. She was sure that she had put the book in.

"Something wrong mate?" She looked up at Tai and blushed.

"Oh, well I just misplaced my text book" He smiled and helped her up.

"Here, you can look on mine" he said giving her a lopsided grin.

Lily beamed at him "Thanks!"

James gritted his teeth and turned to Hagrid.

* * *

"How many times do I have to say it? _Heels down_!" Amber called out.

She was standing in the middle of the paddock next to Remus. She was holding a lunge line-the rope attached to Thorns bridle- and making him walk around in circles while Paul tried to ride him.

"I know, I know!" Paul called out in frustration "and hands up and back straight, and reins not too long and don't hold the wings!"

Amber smiled "I'm a good teacher"

Remus raised his eyebrows "Or he still holds a grudge about the whole, leaving him on his own until he realised that you weren't coming back from that phone call you received"

Amber frowned "He's still mad about that? That was two years ago!"

"Yeah, well guys don't really appreciate being left like that and then being dumped"

Amber tossed her hair back "At least I went out with him"

Remus frowned at her "The only reason you went out with him was because Cassandra wanted too and you were getting back at her. I don't believe that nobody else has figured that out yet"

There was suddenly a shout "Nite!" Amber turned; Thorn had started trotting around the ring. Amber slowed him, and then turned back to Remus.

"I don't believe that you keep bringing it up!"

She turned to see if James and Lily were getting along yet.

She saw James sitting by himself. She frowned and saw Lily sitting with…

"**Amber!**" Remus grabbed the lunge line from her and slowed Thorn, who had started cantering around the ring.

Paul glared at Amber and she quickly turned away from him.

She glared at Tai. Why did he always have to be so nice to everyone!

Even when that stupid, horse hating 'friend' of his had stolen his girlfriend, told everyone about his 'condition' and made half the girls at the school hate him (Amber had soon fixed that) he still trusted him.

That was mostly the reason that Amber had lost her temper after she caught him dissing her cousin again.

Once again Amber was cursing his niceness.

It wouldn't occur to Tai that James liked Lily and was giving him not so subtle hints to back off; it wouldn't occur to Tai that, by being nice to Lily, he was making her like him. It wouldn't occur to Tai that he was ruining her perfect plan!

She kicked a rock, annoyed.

It bounced over to Thorn and hit him lightly on the leg. Thorn sighed; he was tired of going round in circles. He bucked Paul off.

Amber bit her lip guiltily and ran over to him "Oh, I'm so sorry! Are you okay?"

Paul rubbed his back and frowned at her "I'm fine thanks, but you-"

Amber looked down at him, disgusted "Not you! Thorn"

* * *

Tai walked back from the lesson. Wondering why James had kept throwing him angry glances.

"Thanks a lot!" an angry voice interrupted his thoughts.

He turned to face a fuming mad Amber "What did I do this time?"

"You had to be nice to Lily didn't you!"

"Erm, so you don't want me to be nice to your friends?"

"Not today!" Amber moaned.

"Oh, so should I-"

"**Why are you so nice all the time? Cant you ever be mad at anyone!" **Amber yelled at him.

Tai just raised his eyebrows "I think that you do enough being mad for both of us"

Amber just huffed and stormed off.

"Don't worry about her, she's been acting really strangely lately" said a voice.

Tai turned and smiled at Lily. "Really? How has she been acting strangely?"

"Well, she's started going out with this guy-"

"-Amber?"

"Yes, that's who we're talking about"

Tai frowned, that definitely did not sound like his Cousin

"Oh, well go on"

"Called Sirius who is practically her sworn enemy"

Tai relaxed, that definitely sounded like Amber.

"Well you better hurry and catch up with her" he said.

Was it his imagination or did Lily look a bit disappointed at that?

"Okay sure" she sighed slightly. The jogged to catch up with her friend.

Suddenly someone bumped into Tai, sending him thumping on the ground. Tai looked up to see James stalking off. James turned and glared at him as he went up to the castle. His sandy haired friend jogged up to catch up with him. As he passed Tai he shot him an apologetic glance.

Tai shook his head as he got up and brushed dirt off of him. What was going on here?

**

* * *

****Hooray! Another chapter finished! I've been working on this practically all day. Sorry that this chapter was a bit more about Amber than Lily. The next chapter will be mostly by Lily's point of view. **

**Please review and if you come up with any idea's about how Amber and Sirius can try to get Lily and James together, and if you think of any, ways that Cassandra can get revenge.**

**Midnight Filly **


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, or magic, or Hogwarts or some other stuff.**

**WARNING: This chapter may get a little confusing. You may have to read it a couple of times for it to make sense. You have been warned!**

* * *

"And then she said that we should go on a double date with Sirius and Amber, and I realised that yet again my girlfriend only liked me because she liked Sirius"

Peter sighed, finishing his story.

Sirius sighed as well "Don't these girls know that going out with my friend, because they like me only crosses them off my list?"

He pulled out a long list of all of the girls in the school "Erin Hages" he muttered crossing it off

Peter leaned over and looked at his list. Sirius snatched it away "Uh-uh-uh, my list!"

"I just want to look at this" Peter tugged it off him and looked at the list "Amber Nightingale" he read.

"Hey, don't look at my…err, girl-friend" he said snatching it away and pushing it out of sight.

Peter just nodded, wondering why the spot where Amber's name should have been, had been blown off, then taped back on, scribbled on with a permanent marker and skull and cross bones surrounding it.

James was still gazing over to where Lily was sitting.

"Hey guys" Remus came and sat next to Sirius.

"And where have you been mister?" Sirius asked sternly.

Remus just brushed some of the clumps of dirt off of his robes, and then used a charm to make it fly into a jar.

Peter frowned at him "You missed my story of woe!"

"He broke up with Erin cause she is a slave to my charm"

"Oh, well-Kitty?" Remus gaped at someone entering the door.

The others turned and looked at her. And their mouth's dropped.

They hadn't seen Kitty when she had transformed last night. She had rushed into the Shrieking Shack and locked herself in a room. However, from the shrieks and yowls coming from the room they guessed that she had had a rough time. This proved it.

Kitty's hair was dry and limp and tangled. She had large purple bags under her eyes and she wasn't wearing any makeup, or a collar.

Remus rushed up to her "Kitty, what happened to you?" he asked, astonished.

He looked at Opal and she shrugged "She was like this when she woke up, I don't know what's wrong" she murmured quietly.

"Remus" Kitty acknowledged him bluntly.

Sirius appeared at Remus's shoulder and nearly fainted in shock.

He grabbed Kitty by the shoulders and shook her roughly "Who are you and what have you done with Kitty!"

Kitty shook her head slowly "Don't"

Sirius raised his eyebrows, she had a long, thin scratch down one side of her face.

"That scratch there might be good for making Diggory feel sorry for you"

Kitty frowned and turned her face so that she could see the scratch in a nearby suit of armour.

Her mouth dropped. Remus guessed that she was surprised how badly she had scratched herself.

"My hair!" She shrieked.

"Kitty's back" Sirius nodded.

Kitty immediately headed for the nearest bathroom "Diggory, _so_ better not have seen me yet!"

* * *

"Ooooh! We're nearly there! Only twenty-three…twenty-four, people to go!" Molly squeaked.

Lily turned to her friend "You're actually counting?"

"Yeah!" Molly looked at her like she was crazy "How else will I know when we're there?"

Lily just smiled and turned away before her brain turned to mush. She felt a tug on her skirt and looked down. Molly's puppy was chewing on the hem of her new skirt. She sighed, one of the good things, or sometimes bad things about Hogsmede was that they got to wear free dress.

"Bad Chessie, Bad!" Molly said, scooping the dog up and leaving chestnut hairs all over Lily's black skirt.

Lily just rolled her eyes. A familiar figure walked up to them. "Morning all" Amber said calmly.

Lily raised her eyebrows "What took you so long this time?" she eyed Ambers clothes, slightly disgusted. Amber had a perfectly good figure, but all she could be bothered to wear were scuffed up jeans and a wrinkled red tee shirt.

"I suppose you weren't picking out your outfit?" Lily commented sarcastically. She remembered seeing that shirt at the top of Amber's pile of clothes.

"Or doing your hair?" Molly said, equally disgusted, looking at Amber's hair which was as messy as usual.

Amber just changed the subject "Where's Tia?"

"She's still resting from her cold" Lily said. Molly was still staring at Amber's hair.

"Really? It should have worn off by now?" Amber said, then seeing the puzzled looks on Lily's face she said "Erm, they usually do at least…by now"

"Straw!" Molly suddenly exclaimed.

Amber and Lily both stared at her "Um…straw?" Lily asked.

"Yeah, that's what's wrong with Amber's hair" Molly pulled a piece of straw out of her friend's hair and waved it in their faces "Straw"

"What are you doing with straw in your hair?" Lily asked suspiciously. Amber had definitely changed over the holidays.

Amber just pulled a piece out "Oh, would you look at that" She said mildly.

"Does this have anything to do with Black?"

"Speak of the devil" Amber sighed.

Lily turned around to see Sirius standing behind her.

"Uh, Ni-Amber, you've got straw in your hair" He said pulling a piece out and looking at it.

"Yes, we've established that" she turned to Lily "No, it has nothing to do with Black"

Lily frowned "Okay" she said slowly.

"Amber, you remember that talk we had about doing something with your hair? Well you might want to start with maybe brushing it…or making sure that there's nothing in it"

"Does it have something to do with Amigo?" Lily asked, still puzzling over the straw.

"Amber, you have straw in your hair" James and Peter came up to them.

"Do you know why?" Lily asked.

"Hey Amber, did you remember too-

"Uietqay about the Trawsay!" Amber hissed **A/N Pig Latin. Just take away the 'ay' and put the lat letter first **

Remus cocked his head "I wasn't talking about the Trawsay!"

Amber hit him on the head.

Lily opened her mouth to ask about the 'Trawsay' when she was interrupted.

"Hi guys!"

"Tia? I thought that you were sick?" Lily asked, Tia had seemed pretty ill that morning when she had seen her.

"Oh, well it's weird. I just suddenly cleared up and so I decided to come. I wonder why-"

Sirius had a coughing fit.

"Oooooh! We're next!" Molly commented.

They turned to where Filch was checking the permission forms. The conversation stopped for a while.

They went into Hogsmede. Sirius turned to Remus.

"Hey, weren't you telling me about a good pet store somewhere in Hogsmede?"

Remus shrugged and turned to Molly "You go left at the small post office and then-"

"-Why don't you show her? Molly's not good with directions" Amber cut in.

"Erm…okay, C'mon Molly and..."

"Chessie. Isn't it a cute name?" Molly giggled

When they left Amber peered towards a quiddich store "Hey, it looks like they have a new model"

Tia gasped and rushed into the shop. Lily tried to ask Amber again about the straw. Usually she wasn't so nosy, but this time she was very curious.

"So Amber, why-"

"-Peter, isn't that Elizabeth Main? Haven't you been trying to ask her out for ages?"

Peter's eyes brightened and he whirled around "What? I don't like her anymore" He said, quickly turning around.

Lily saw Amber giving him a frustrated glare. "Oh, well. It looks like she's heading over to Jake Hale"

Peter gasped and rushed over towards the girl.

Lily frowned "Amber honestly-"

"Aaah, Cassandra!" Sirius ducked into the nearest shop and hissed "I'm gonna lay low for afew minutes"

Amber looked over towards a shop "Oooh, I've been meaning to ask Alice the proper wand movement in transfiguration" she said slipping off.

Lily gave a groan of frustration. James started talking "Hey Lily, do you want to go to-"

"Hey Tai!" Lily exclaimed, spotting the familiar blond head.

He turned around and grinned, then eyed James warily "Uhh…Hey Lily, I-"

"Tai!" Amber suddenly appeared at his shoulder "Long time no see!" She practically ripped his arm out of its socket dragging him off.

Lily sighed, and then turned to James "Why was Tai acting so weirdly?"

He just shrugged moodily "How should I know? It's not like I'm his babysitter. Though if you ask me he needs one"

Lily halted angrily and whirled around to face him "You told him off didn't you? For just talking to me and being friendly!"

James's face reddened "WELL IF YOU ASK ME HE WANTS TO BE MORE THAN FRIENDS!"

Lily's hands curled to fists, people were starting to stare but she didn't care "WELL I DIDDNT ASK YOU!"

"OH, SO YOU DON'T HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THAT!"

"WILL YOU JUST GET OUT OF MY LIFE?"

"I BET YOU DIDDNT ASK SUIT THAT!"

Lily just glared at him, and then stormed off.

* * *

Tai decided not to ask why they were hiding in a rack of robes for sale and watching two people shout angrily at each other. Sometimes things were best left alone.

He watched as Lily stormed off and passed the rack of robes "Hey-Mmmph" he mumbled as Amber clapped a hand over his mouth.

"Don't make it worse!" she hissed.

James stood where he was for a while before storming off as well.

Amber sighed and sunk onto the ground "Back to square one. Why must you ruin all of our plans?"

"Um, I ruined your plan huh? How?"

Amber sighed and detangled herself from a brightly spangled blue robe. "By being there!"

Tai shook his head "Okay, well if you don't mind, I think I might go and try to find Paul now"

"What! You're friends with that weirdo!" Amber exclaimed, still trying to pull her hair off the rack.

"Yeah, he mentioned that you two were friends" Tai smiled and walked off. "Oh, and by the way, you have straw in your hair"

* * *

"I'll be glad when you get a lead for that thing" Remus mumbled. Chessie seemed to have taken a liking to his hair, and was sitting on his head as he and Molly walked to the pet shop.

Molly smiled and patted her puppy on the head "You know, it's cool how some animals can, like, sense stuff. Like if you're pregnant or young or a good person or a bad person. They have a kind of fith sense"

"Sixth" Remus corrected her.

"Sixth what?"

"Sixth sense"

"Why are we talking about Muggle money?"

Remus frowned and opened his mouth, then decided that it would be easier just to agree. "Oh, yeah, weird"

Molly just shot him a puzzled look "Are we nearly there yet?"

"Yes, here it is" He pointed to a shop. The windows had baby nifflers on sale in one side and a huge snake with shining opals for scales in the other.

"PCHATSW?" Asked Molly, looking at the sign.

"Paws, Claws, Hooves, Air, Tentacles, Slime and Wings" Stated Remus "I don't understand why they didn't just call it Animals"

Molly shrugged "Oh, well. Let's go in"

They went into the store. Strangely it was much bigger inside than it was outside. It was also filled with people looking for pets.

"Hey, Remus, you have a dog on your head"

Remus glared at his sister "Yeah"

Kitty motioned towards the large sparkling snake "I was just commenting on how if Opal was an animagi, she would be this snake"

They looked at Opal who, as usual, was hiding behind her hair.

"What are you doing here?" asked Molly, she knew that neither of them had a pet.

"Oh, I had to stock up on collars" Kitty said, holding up a bag "I've decided that I like Yellow now" She said pulling a bright yellow collar out.

Remus just sighed "Come on Molly…Chessie" he tried to look up at the dog but found this hard since she was still on his head.

They went over to the counter where a bright girl with orange hair in a loose ponytail was feeding a strange purple blob orange flakes.

"Hi" she looked up when they came over "Small animals out here, large animals in the back" she motioned towards a door behind her "and pet supplies over there" she motioned towards another door.

"Uhhh, thanks" Remus said, walking into the door at the back. It was filled with…lots of weird things, and all of the usual things that you would find in a pet shop.

"Ooooh! This will be fun!" Molly exclaimed, taking Chessie off his head and walking into the jumble.

"Yeah" Remus said slowly. "Fun"

* * *

"Peter, come on. We need to find James now!" Sirius marched up.

Peter waved his hand at him "Just a minute!"

Sirius sighed, wondering if he was this hard to get away from a girl; no…he was probably much worse

Sirius tugged his arm again "Now as in NOW!"

Peter turned to him annoyed "Just a second!"

Sirius sighed ._sorry Peter, but it's come to this._ Then gave Elizabeth a flirtatious smile "Hey Lizzie, how's life?"

She smiled at him "Great thanks Sirius"

One of her friends, a tall girl with long brown hair rolled her eyes "Oh, you're so charming"

Sirius looked at Elizabeth and her friend, who were both gazing dreamily at him and smirked at her, "Oh yes Jordan, I am"

Then he turned and pulled a disgruntled Peter away.

"Why do you always have to flirt with the girls that I like?" Peter asked moodily.

"Because I care" Sirius said comfortingly. "Now, do you have any Idea where Prongs is? I cant find him anywhere!"

* * *

James spat out another leaf _oh yes James, hide in the bush, its perfect, you can hear and see them but can still be hidden_

The reason that he was hiding in a bush was because when Lily had stormed off he had followed her, attempting to make up, but then she had to go straight to her precious Suit!

They had gone to get lunch and were now sitting at a table, located next to the bush where James was hidden, looking at the menu.

"How come everything here is fried?" Tai asked.

_How come? Pah, there he goes, making things longer than they have to be. Why couldn't he just say 'why is everything here fried'?_

Lily shrugged "Well you could go with the salad option" she said, motioning towards part.

"Yeah, I guess. I wanna be unhealthy, but" **A/N: Yes, in Australia some of us do talk like this cough not that I do!**

"You want an unhealthy butt?" James shouted, sticking his head out of the bush.

Lily and Tai both turned and stared at him. Tai looked more amused than surprised and Lily looked…not too happy

"Ooops" James muttered. Slowly pulling his head back in.

* * *

"Hey guys" Tia said, swinging casually onto a chair.

"Hi, um…Tia?" Tai said.

Lily just grunted.

Tia ignored her "Yeah, hey Tie-"

"Tai" he corrected her

"Yeah, Tai, can you help me practise some time? I do try on my own but it gets a bit boring scoring goals without anyone trying to stop me"

He nodded agreeably "Yeah, sure. I try on my own as well, but, it's really hard blocking goals when nobody is actually throwing them"

"Hey, have you guys seen James?"

They all turned and looked at Peter and Sirius who had just arrived.

"YES!" Yelled Lily.

"Um…so that's, er, a bad thing?" Sirius asked.

Tai sighed "For some reason he was hiding in a bush and then he ran away"

"Ohhh, so he was spying on you" Peter nodded

"Really?" Tai asked "Why would he want to spy on us?"

Peter just shook his head "Long story"

* * *

_Where in Hogsmede are Sirius and Peter? _James thought angrily. He had been looking for them ever since he had escaped from Lily, and couldn't find them anywhere.

He saw a group of giggling girls and made and started walking towards them. One of them was Elizabeth Main, he remembered Peter going over to her a while ago. Hopefully they knew where he went.

He looked at the girls, there was Elizabeth and the tall one…Jorge? Then there was the short one.

"Err, Kadie?" he called. The girls turned around the tall one sighed

"It looks like this is our day for Marauders"

"It's Katie" the girl corrected him.

"Right, have you seen Sirius and, or Peter?"

Katie and Elizabeth sighed dreamily and Jordan nodded "Yeah"

"So do you know where they are?"

"Nope"

James sighed, and then heard a voice behind him.

"Why do all of my friends find it necessary to flirt with the girl I like?"

James turned around and saw Sirius and Peter behind him.

"I wasn't flirting with them!" James exclaimed

"I was!" Sirius winked at the girls.

Jordan stared meaningfully in the other direction, and Katie and Elizabeth started giggling.

Peter just sighed "Okay, next time you're trying to impress someone I will personally ask Remus to flirt with them.

Sirius just laughed "Remus can't flirt, I can't even remember the last time he had a date"

James thought for a moment "Somewhere in third year I think"

Sirius frowned "Why did he stop?"

Peter just tried to look inconspicuous. It failed

"Peter, what do you know!"

"Oh, isn't it lovely weather we're having today"

Sirius looked up at the cloudy sky "Erm, sure"

James turned to Elizabeth "Please tell him to tell us what he knows!"

Elizabeth shrugged "Why? I don't want to know"

Katie spoke up "Weren't you just saying that-"

Jordan elbowed her.

"If you don't tell us I will flirt consistently with Liz!" Sirius exclaimed

"You already do"

"Oh yeah"

"Peter just tell us!" James whined

"Hey, it looks like Tia has the latest new model broom" Peter said, peering at the quiddich shop behind them.

James whirled around, gasping "She does? Which one!"

And Sirius looked around, confused "Why would I care?"

Peter ran into the rack of robes that Amber and Tai had been hiding in earlier.

Sirius and James turned back to him "I didn't see her-"

They looked around wildly. Jordan pointed down the street; in the opposite direction that Peter had gone "He went that way"

The boys took off down the street.

* * *

"Okay, James. Just get Lily out of your head for about an hour and we can win this match" Tia said, tying her hair in a ponytail for about the fith time.

James grumbled. He and Sirius hadn't managed to catch Peter yesterday. He wanted to know what Peter knew!

Tia looked in the mirror next to her in the quiddich changing room "Arrgh!" she groaned, pulling it out again.

James smiled at her, she always had to have her hair in the correct ponytail, or else she couldn't play.

"Tia, I wouldn't say that your vain or anything, but you get really superstitious about your hair!"

She gave him a teasing grin "Oh, and you don't?"

For the past ten minutes he had been desperately trying to get one hair to lie in the other direction.

"What! Unless I have exactly thirty hairs in my lucky patch my chances of catching the snitch are-Oh"

He grinned sheepishly.

Tia sighed, trying to do her hair again.

"You're both incredibly superstitious, about your hair at least. And you're both my best players"

Melanie came up behind them. "Ready for the first match of the year?"

"Yes!" Tia said confidently, finally getting her hair in the correct ponytail.

"Definitely!" Said James, jumping up.

* * *

"Why-do-we-have-to-sit-at-the-top" Panted Molly, as she, Lily and Amber made their way to the top seats.

"So that we can watch Tia easier" Lily replied.

"Why cant we-watch her-from the bottom?" Amber moaned.

"Because" Lily shook her head.

They saw Opal sitting by herself at the top row of seats. She was alone since Kitty did the commentary for the match.

"Hey Opal, mind if we sit with you?" Lily asked.

The shy girl smiled "Sure" she said.

Lily sat next to her, while Molly and Amber collapsed in the seats next to her.

"Excuse my un-fit friends"

"Hey, mind if I sit with you?" a voice asked. They all turned and saw Remus. "James is playing, Sirius is commentating, and Peter is sitting with Elizabeth. He wouldn't let me sit with them, something about his friends always flirting"

Opal ducked under her hair "Yeah, sure" Lily agreed, smiling at the younger girl. Now she understood why Opal kept her hair so long.

* * *

"Good evening Ladies and Germs" Sirius announced into his magical microphone.

Kitty cut in "One, it's the afternoon, and two…well, the rest is correct"

"Welcome to the first match of the year!" Sirius announced "GO GRYFINDOR! You can get those slimy, sneaking, Slytherin-"

"Lovely people, one of which is your brother!" Kitty gave Regulus a flirtatious wave.

"Oh, come on Kitty, you can do so much better than him!"

"Well he is related to you" Said Kitty, giving Sirius a teasing smile

Sirius thought for a moment "True, true, did I ever mention that you have astoundingly good taste?"

"Probably, any-who, the match. On the Gryffindor side we have Chance, Potter, Longwell, Patil, Davey and Nought"

"Aaaand, on the Slimy Slytherin side we have Core, Mcinan, Crab, Jole, Malfoy and Krense. Did I mention that they are slimy, ugly, brutes? And I mean that in the nicest way Professor" He beamed at Professor Slughorn.

"And now the captians are shaking hands, their up in the air and, notice how I wore a special red and gold collar for the occasion?"

"Very nice, I like how the red matches you're lip gloss…exactly"

"You expect me to buy a collar that doesn't perfectly match my lip gloss?"

"No. So, ooh, Melanie Chance has the Quaffle, good start for Gryffindor! She's been on the quiddich team since second year; I don't know what the team will do without her.

She also happens to be quite good looking. I myself find her too old; however, for all you seventeen year old males, she is currently single. James for Captain!"

"Of course, its not like he is definitely going to be the captain, he has competition from the lovely Tia Longwell, who is currently in possession of the quaffle"

"Aaah, look at how tiny the people in the stand look. There's little Remus and little Opal, and little Lily…"

"Really?" Kitty asked, scanning the crowd. She saw her friend who was still blushing.

Kitty sighed "Sorry Remus. Opal, this is all your fault you know. Okay, well there was a particularly funny story about Remus, you all know my brother, Remus Lupin?

Yes, well I had this adorable, little brown mouse when I was young, well about two years ago. Then it escaped once, I was looking for it everywhere when I heard a scream. I thought it was my mother,

But I went into the lounge and found my dear brother, Remus perching on the arm of a chair and cowering in fright from a tiny little mouse"

Sirius looked out at where Remus was sitting; he was bright red and glaring at Kitty.

"Remind me never to do anything embarrassing around you Kitty"

"Oh, don't worry Sirius; I have heaps of stuff about you, like that time that you thought that-"

Sirius gasped and clapped a hand over her mouth

"Mumph, get off me, I'm sorry Black, but not many people think that a French poodle is hot?"

"Okay, you asked for it. I happen to still have pictures from before you got your nose job!"

"I never got a nose job, genius"

"Oh yeah, that was Bellatrix. Um…Oh, I also have a picture of you when me, Remus, James, Peter and you were playing truth or dare, and I dared you to wear midnight purple lip gloss, a lime green collar and those orange robes"

Kitty's mouth dropped "Oh my Gosh! Okay I am so not going to annoy you!"

"Hey, what's McGonagall shouting?"

"Uhhh, she wants a boar?"

"Hmmm, I think she wants the score"

* * *

**Yes, I know that usually only one person does the commentary, but I thought that they would be amusing.**

**PLEASE! If you have any ideas about how Amber and Sirius can try to get Lily and James together TELL ME! I only have a few more and if I run out then I won't be able to write any more chapters. **

**Also, since school is going back the day after tomorrow (Aaagh!) I won't be able to update as much as I have been. I'll probably update about once a week. **

**Midnight Filly**

**_NOTE TO MAD OVER MOONEY: _**I forgot to mention, when looking for clues, ignore the quiddich games. They are an exception to any clues that I have put in.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I don't own my friends either. I don't even own one leaf on one tree of Harry Potter! You get the picture.**

* * *

Lily sighed as she walked past the cheering crowd that was jumping up and down in excitement.

They had won the match. Big deal!

She was in an incredibly bad mood, since at the end of the match James had swooped down next to her and asked her out again. He probably thought that with the adrenalin rush from Gryffindor winning she would say yes. Unfortunately for him she had been having a bad morning, and had been grumpy all morning.

Usually she liked quiddich, but after she thought about the transfiguration homework and the charms essay and the potions question sheet, her mood had descended.

Amber appeared at her shoulder, Molly was congratulating Tia.

"So, you going to the party in the Gryffindor common room?" she asked. She sounded a bit more worn out than usual. This concluded in making her sound much nicer.

"No, I'm going to go and do my homework, then go back to bed" Lily sighed.

Amber nodded; Lily noticed slight bags under her eyes "I guess you didn't get much sleep either. Are you going to the party?"

Amber shook her head and yawned "No, I have a date with Sirius-at least, I think I do"

"What do you mean think?"

"Well, he might want to join in the celebrations"

Lily nodded and made her way wearily up to the common room.

* * *

"So, Sirius. Are you going to the Party?" Kitty asked, looking in a hand mirror to make sure that talking hadn't smudged her lip gloss.

Sirius shrugged, "Dunno, I might". He wasn't sure if he and Amber had planned a planning session. They probably needed to, judging by Lily's reaction to James asking her out again.

He walked over to where Tia, Jackson Foley and James were talking about the match. Jackson was the star player of the Hufflepuff quiddich team. He had slung his arm over Tia's shoulders.

"And then, just as his fingers scraped the snitch, I gained an extra spurt of power and grabbed it out of his hand!" James was saying.

"Hmmm, so you don't think that my forty points had anything to do with us winning?" asked Tia.

James raised his head "No, not really" he caught sight of Sirius "Hey, you coming to the party?" he asked.

Sirius shook his head, deciding to go with Amber. Lily and James definitely needed more work.

"No, I have a date with Amber". The others nodded and walked off.

"Oh do you?" Asked a voice behind him. It was Amber. She had been planning to do a session anyway, but she wanted to give him a hard time.

"I might have other obligations. Such as…uhh…"

Sirius stayed silent waiting for her to agree.

"I'm free" she sighed, they walked to the Room of requirement.

Sirius sat down and Amber collapsed into her chair.

"I am so tired" she complained, her long hair falling over a mirror that had been set on the table.

"So, let's think about our other great plans. What is it that has gone wrong with all of them?"

"Tai" Amber mumbled sleepily.

"Exactly! So we need to get rid of him on the day that we do our next plan. And what is the most efficient way to keep someone occupied for a while?"

"Chain them to the walls of the astronomy tower?" Amber yawned.

"No, put them on a date!" Sirius threw his hands up enthusiastically

"Hmmmm" Amber murmured.

"So, likely candidates?" Sirius looked at her.

"Um, I dunno, I'm not so good at the matching people up thing, just getting them together. I'm not even very good at that"

"Okay, tell me a bit about him"

"Well, Tai's nice, verrrrrrrrrry nice. Too nice, Annoyingly nice, Infuriatingly, aggravatingly nice"

"So, he's nice?"

"Yeah. Once his 'friend' in Australia stole his girlfriend Frances, Told everybody about a…um…condition, that he had, and turned all the girls at his old school against him. Yet still Tai called him his friend"

"Wow, that nice"

"Yeah, he's my cousin and I try to stand up for him. But it gets very annoying"

"So, apart from that?"

Amber groaned "He's perfect. Annoyingly perfect actually, but still perfect. Good grades, good looks, good at sport, yada yada yada. And he likes animals"

"Okay" Sirius pulled out his list of girls and scanned it "Someone nice, and interested in animals, hmmmm, Whisley, White, Whitburn…hmmm, Katie. She's nice, and loves animals…especially dingoes. She's perfect!"

Amber leant over and looked at the list "Hmmm, and she's friends with Elizabeth, Sophie and Jordan. Could work. Has Peter convinced Elizabeth to go out with him yet?"

"No, he's trying it one step at a time"

"Can't talk to her without you butting in and flirting?"

"I can't help it if I have better look's and charm than Peter!"

"Uh-huh"

"Anyway, I will use those looks, charm and unquestionable skill to get this Katie on a date with Tai!"

"Or you could just ask"

"That may work"

* * *

Where was Sirius? James had been looking for him everywhere. He sighed and looked again at the marauders map. His friend wasn't showing up, that probably meat that he was in the room of requirement.

He decided to turn to his last way of communication. Sirius hated it when James called him on dates, but this was important.

"Sirius Black" he said clearly into a small handheld mirror.

The mirror wavered slightly like water, before showing a picture of some incredibly messy blonde hair that was full of straw.

He sighed, guessing that it was Ambers. He was about to give up, until he head Amber's voice say "Tai's"

He frowned and listened intently. The hair was muffling some of the sound and all he could hear was.

"Well, Tai's nice……………….. Annoyingly……… Infuriatingly, aggravatingly….."

He frowned, wondering what they were talking about. He heard Sirius reply, but couldn't hear it. Amber shifted slightly and he could hear better.

"Once…. 'friend'…Australia stole his girlfriend Frances, Told everybody about a…um…condition, that he had, and turned all the girls at his old school against him. Yet still Tai pretended…friend"

James gasped. Tai was apparently not as nice as he made out to be. He stole his friends girlfriend, told everybody something bad about him, and turned the girls in the school against him, yet still pretended to be his friend!

He heard Amber sigh. "Yeah, he's my cousin and I try to stand up … him. But it gets very annoying"

James shoved the mirror into his pocket and stormed out into the hall. How dare this Suit guy mess with his Lily?

James found Tai on the map, just out side the room of requirement and used a couple of secret passages to get there quickly.

Tai turned around when he saw James "Oh, Hi James"

James shook with fury, who did this guy think he was?

"You may pretend to be a nice innocent boy here, but I know your secret!" he yelled.

Tai frowned slightly "Excuse me?"

"Back in Australia, you were a traitor to your friend, you stole his girlfriend, told everyone about some problem he had, and turned the school against him. I guess that's why you had to move here, because everybody there hates you!"

James's fists were clenched.

Tai paled and stared at him, wide eyed, then whirled around and took off.

Suddenly A blonde blur shot out at James and he found himself pinned to the wall.

Amber was gripping the front of his robes and had her wand at his neck. "You are such a jerk!" she growled.

James frowned at her "So is he!"

Forgetting about her wand, Amber's fist shot out and whacked him in the face.

He slid onto the ground, a burning pain in his left eye.

Amber hurried off after Tai to explain.

Sirius knelt next to his friend and showed him his mirror which was still turned on. Obviously he had been shouting into Amber's ear.

"You really should learn to turn these things off" he said, taking his friend to the hospital wing and to explain.

* * *

The next day

"Hi Tai!" Amber brightly bounced up to her cousin.

"What do you want this time?" he said, looking at her suspiciously.

"Weeeeell, how do you feel about a blind date?"

"I prefer to be able to see on dates"

"Ha ha, seriously!"

"Who is it?"

"If I told you then it wouldn't be a blind date! She likes dingoes though!"

"You didn't tell her-"

"No, I'm not a freak" Amber glared at him and pulled out a stuffed toy dingo "Now say yes or the dingo goes!" she held up her wand to the dingo's throat.

"Um, Amber, you do realise that that's Opals-"

"Do you want the dingo to die?"

He looked at her, exasperated "I was going to say yes anyway"

She smiled "Good, now I should probably give this back to Opal" She grinned "Maby I'll wait until she's talking to Remus"

Amber shrugged and stuffed the orange dog into her bag.

"I'd better go and make sure that Black has remembered what he went over there to do" she said swooping off.

"Goodbye to you too" Sighed Tai.

* * *

"KATIE! I haven't seen you in ages, have you done something new with your hair?"

"What do you want Black?" Jordan glared at him, while Sophie, Katie and Lizzy swooned.

"Katie, what are your feelings on blind dates?"

"I'd rather be with someone who can see"

"What if I told you that this one can see? And likes dingoes!"

"Does he like Butlers?"

"Uhhhhh, well, he doesn't not like them…I think"

"Okay, sure"

Sirius smiled, he was meant for this matchmaking thing, he should go at it professionally. He turned to Jordan.

"Jordan, darling, how had your day been?" he asked, sounding as if he was talking to a puppy.

"Sod off Black"

"Ooooh, being quite colourful today aren't we?"

"We have a boyfriend, Paul" she crossed her arms, hoping that her friends would take a hint. They didn't.

"But, Jordan, didn't you dump him yesterday because-" Sophie stopped when she saw Jordan's glare.

"Yeah, well Black has a girlfriend" Lizzie put in.

"Oh, who care's about her?" Sirius waved his hand.

"Yeah, it's not like she's important or anything" a voice said behind him.

Sirius turned around and beamed at Amber who had appeared behind him. He then took off down the hall "Bye Jordan" he called out behind him.

Jordan wrinkled her nose "Why can't he choose one of his little fans?" she asked.

Amber shrugged, "Believe me, my life would be much easier if he would"

"So, who is my date?" Katie asked

"Oh, Tai, my cousin"

"The cute one?" Sophie asked.

"No, he's hideous, he's got horrible pointy yellow hair and murky blue eyes and an incredibly strong accent-"

"The cute one" Sophie nodded, she turned to Lizzie and Katie, "You all know what this means!"

"Shopping!" they both squealed, racing off.

Jordan sighed "Goody", then turned and followed them.

* * *

"So what is Tai's personality like?" Lily asked again.

They were all in their bedroom. Tia was clipping the twigs on her broom, Amber was lying on her bed and sketching a dragon and Molly was, for some strange reason, reading a book upside down.

"I told you, I'm not being quizzed about my stupid, surfer cousin!"

Lily sighed, how did Amber think she was going to find out about Tai if she couldn't quiz her?

"At least tell me something!" Lily whined.

Amber studied her picture "do you think it should be red or green?"

"Amber!"

"Yeah, green is good"

Lily grabbed a pillow and started hitting her friend "Tell" thump "Me" thump "Now!" thump.

Amber sighed and brushed her away "He's a Quiddich nut"

Lily paused thoughtfully "Quiddich, if only I knew how to play" she glanced over to Tia who shook her head.

"Sorry, but the next week I'm barely going to have time to train myself" She calmly brushed twig clippings off her lap.

"I am currently failing all of my subjects"

Lily looked up, startled "it's only the second week!"

Tia shrugged "McGonagall says that she'll ban me from the team unless my grades pick up. Sorry, but the Quiddich team comes before trying to get Tai to like you on my list of things to do"

Lily sighed. Who would be able to teach her quiddich? She knew a few people who knew how to play, but who would be willing to teach her?

She went over to Molly. Alough her friend was not the brightest she could come up with some good ideas.

"Molly, what are you doing?"

Molly looked up from her upside-down book. "I'm doing Ancient Runes homework"

Lily turned the book around.

Molly looked at it for a second "This isn't my ancient runes book! Do you know what this means?"

"That it was upside down?"

"No! It's a magical changing book! It changes when-"

"-Molly, it was upside down. Do you know who can teach me quiddich apart from Tia and Tai?"

Molly was flicking through her book again "Is James avoiding you again?"

Lily frowned "No, why?"

"Well, I'd have thought that he would do anything to be able to show you"

Lily gasped, James! Sure, she hated him, but at least then she would get to learn quiddich!

"Molly you are a genius!" Lily exclaimed.

Molly had turned the book around again and gasped "It does change!"

* * *

"James! Hey James, wait up!" a voice called out.

James and Remus froze. "Am I dreaming?" James asked. Remus pinched his arm. "Ouch! Hey, that's Sirius's cue!"

"Yes, well since he is unavailable at the current time it is my duty to perform his responsibilities" Remus stated.

James frowned at him "Peter gave you back your dictionary didn't he?"

Remus just beamed.

Lily finally managed to catch up with him. "Hey…James" She panted.

James looked at her uncertinately "Um…aren't you still mad about the whole mishearing Amber and being mean to Suit thing?" he asked uncertinately.

He still had a black eye from Amber, Madame Pomfrey couldn't get rid of it, no matter what charms or potions she used, and Amber wouldn't say how to get rid of it.

Merlin that girl was scary, if he had the choice of going up against her in a fight, or this uprising dark wizard Voldemort, he would choose Voldemort any time.

Lily shook her head "No, not really, it was a mistake and as long as you apologised its fine"

Hmmm, apologising might be a good idea.

"So, James, I was wondering. Could you teach me how to play quiddich? No anything good enough to be on the team, just so I know how, so that when I verse Tia she doesn't completely flog me"

"Sure, how about…in three days time?"

Lily smiled and nodded, then hurried off.

James suddenly fell to the floor in a faint.

Remus gasped and nelt down next to him "James, buddy, speak to me!" James looked at him with a goofy smile on his face.

"Lily spoke to me"

Remus just sighed and started dragging him back to the common room.

* * *

Sirius lay on his bed, finishing his divination homework.

Hmm, so if Saturn and a Quaffle were joint in a…Quaffle? He hit himself on the head. He really had to stop thinking about that.

Suddenly the door to the room burst open. Sirius looked up, expecting to see James or Remus or Peter, but instead saw the last person he had ever expected to see in this room.

"I am a genius!" Amber announced, flouncing into the room.

"Um…Amber, this is a boy's dorm"

Amber glanced around the room in mock surprise "Really? I hadn't noticed"

She went over and sat down on Remus's bed, which was the cleanest out of them.

"So, you wanna know why I'm a genius?"

Sirius sighed "Why are you a genius Amber?"

"Because, I managed to set up a plan without even thinking about it, planning it, or affecting it in any way!"

"Uhhh, how did you manage that?"

"Well Molly managed to convince Lily to get James to teach her how to fly! He's going to in three days"

"Great! Now we just have to tell Katie and Tai that their date is in three days!"

Peter came in and heard this last announcement. "I will tell Katie and I will tell her ALONE!" he insisted, rushing out of the door. Not even noticing that Amber was in their room.

"Um, what's up with him?" Amber asked.

"Oh, well, I think that he's a little annoyed at how every time he tries to talk to Elizabeth, I butt in and start flirting with her. It's really not my fault that she cannot withstand a charm such as myself" he said smugly "Sophie and Katie too, I just have to bring Jordan round. She's in denial you know"

"You know, some girls would be slightly annoyed if their boyfriend started talking that way about other girls. Why is she in denial?"

"She is in denial that she wants a piece of Sirius Black"

"Sure she is, like I am"

"Yea- hey!"

At that moment peter came back into the room.

"Katie agreed" he announced "And Lizzie had a civil conversation with me without being interrupted" he smiled proudly. "Oh, and Jordan wanted me to give you this"

He handed Sirius a piece of parchment.

Sirius beamed at Amber and took the parchment "See, she was in denial, and now she has come to terms with-"

Suddenly the parchment folded itself into a hand and slapped him before crumbling to dust.

Amber smirked at him "Oh yeah, she's really in denial. I think that she just perfected the origami hand spell"

* * *

"Okay, class. Welcome to you're second potions lesson of the year" Professor Slughorn smiled at them.

"I have decided that you will keep the partner you had last week for the rest of the term"

James sighed, great, he wouldn't be with Lily, Lily beamed, she would be with Tai, and Amber and Sirius glanced, worriedly at each other.

Slughorn seemed to notice this "Oh, except Miss Nightingale and Mr Black. Would you two please swap with Mr Lupin and Miss White?"

Amber and Sirius both sighed with relief. They did not feel like ending up in the hospital wing every week.

James scowled and went to sit in the seat he had last week. Sophie sat next to him "I see you're all smiles and sunshine again" she commented dryly.

He sighed, well, at least he got to teach her to fly, she could have gone to Tai for that, but hadn't. That thought cheered him up.

He smiled "Sorry Mortimer, I-"

"-Hopes" she interrupted him darkly.

"Huh?"

"Call me Hopes or Sophie"

"I thought that it was-"

"-Hopes!"

James patted her on the arm "Calm down Soph. Its Hopes, I get it"

She smiled and they looked at the board. Today they had to make a dissolving potion.

"You realise that with Molly and Remus split up we have a chance of being the best potion?"

Sophie asked brightly.

"Hmmm, cool" James said, starting to chop up the Macaw feathers.

He saw Molly, who was sitting next to them, stop Sirius from adding a beetle. "It says Macaw feathers, not Macay beetle!"

He sighed "Oh, whats the difference?"

She frowned and handed him the colourful feathers "Chop!"

At the back of the classroom Amber wasn't doing much better "Not Macay beetle!" Remus quickly covered the potion.

Amber rolled her eyes, then studied the board more closely, Ohhh, Macaw, she took the feathers and started to cut them up.

"So, um, why can't I talk to you about-" Amber clamped her hand over his mouth.

"Shut up!" She hissed. She quickly cast an invisible silence bubble over them.

"Because, You know how quickly my friends…and your friends jump to conclusions. I don't want them thinking that I'm…I'm…Sirius!"

"You're not Sirius, and he actually only cheated on a girl once…twice"

Amber just shook her head and undid the silence spell "Help me chop!" she ordered, tossing him some feathers.

* * *

Remus sighed, leaning back on his bed. James was polishing every inch of his broom handle for his 'date' with Lily tomorrow night, Peter was drawing the new extension that had just been put on the castle onto the marauders map and Sirius was going over his list of girls and adding extra comments.

The door opened and a rich golden red cocker spaniel with dove wings trotted in and leapt up onto Remus's bed.

He leant over and scratched the puppy on the head "Hey there Chessie, look at that cute little collar" he said, looking at her sparkly blue collar.

"I've seen it" Chessie said, tossing back her long silky ears. Her voice sounded like that of a giggly twelve year old girl.

Remus sighed. There was one fact that wasn't in any of the books or guides about being a werewolf, even when you were human, canines tended to talk to you.

This became very annoying. Thankfully at Hogwarts there were no dogs-except Chessie- and his parents had insisted that Kitty wasn't allowed any pets. Except for that scary mouse she still owned, that thing would not die.

Chessie strutted along his bed proudly "I know a secret, about you" she sang.

Remus rolled his eyes "Yeah, I know, I'm a werewolf, my friends know that"

Chessie smirked at him "Not that secret, the other one. The one that you wont tell you're friends, Alough one already knows"

Remus blinked "Hang on, what other secret?"

Chessie just smirked at him and trotted over to James.

"Hey, get back here!" Remus lunged at her, but she leapt up into James's arms before he could grab her.

James looked at the puppy "Oh, hewo dere little Chessie" he cooed, tickling her under the chin.

She turned and gave Remus a doggy smirk.

"Bitch" he muttered.

James looked at him shocked "Remus! I have never-"

"-Well she is!" Remus insisted "that's what a female dog is called. If I called her a girl-"

James covered the dogs ears and yelled "DON'T LISTEN TO HIM!"

He then started walking towards the door with Chessie still in his arms "I'm gonna go and take her back to Molly" he said.

Remus glared at Chessie "How do you know?" he asked, even though he still didn't know what she knew.

She flicked her tail "You know, it's cool how some animals can sense stuff. Like if you're pregnant or young or a good person or a bad person. It's called a sixth sense" She said, quoting her owner.

"Or you can just call it animal instinct"

Remus frowned sitting down on the bed. Now what could Chessie mean by that?

* * *

Sirius and Peter sat in the common room, finishing their Potions homework. James and Remus had already finished and were at the quiddich pitch discussing what James should teach Lily that night.

"Arrr, what kind of powder was it that we used? Cioncorran?" Sirius asked.

Peter rolled his eyes "Cinnamon" he corrected his friend.

Suddenly there was a swooping sound in the fireplace and a cloud of soot covered Sirius, Peter and whatever else had been nearby.

Sirius coughed and quickly cleared the soot off of everything. A girl with shoulder length, chestnut brown hair and grey-blue eyes was standing in front of them.

"Never again" She murmured queasily, holding out a hand to steady herself against the fireplace.

Sirius and Peter gaped at her. She pointed her pale wand to her head and muttered "yziddy"

She then stood up straight and looked around "hey" she said to Sirius, who was still looking a little shell shocked.

She took his hand which was hanging limply by his side and shook it.

He shook his head and stared at her "Uhh, and you are?" he said holding out his hand

The girl smiled and shook it again "I'm Carla Vizgaudis, you are?"

"Sirius Black" he said slowly "What kind of name is Vizgaudis?"

She rolled her eyes in a friendly way "What kind of a name is Sirius?"

He nodded "true"

She looked around the room "Nice place you got here, bit dusty though" she grinned and flicked her wand at the dust that Sirius's wand had missed.

"It was fine before you got here" Peter said, coolly

Carla shook his hand "Peter Pettigrew" he informed her.

"Hmm, bit of a tongue twister" she raised her eyebrows "Now, please tell me that I'm at Hogwarts"

"Ding, ding, ding, ding" Sirius said.

"Okay, so, where can I find Tai Groman?"

Sirius blinked "Tai?"

"You don't know him?" she said, looking slightly exasperated.

"No, I was just wondering why a lovely lady such as your self would be looking for my dear friend Tai"

She ignored the comment "So, do you know where he would be?"

"Sure, I think that he's in the Ravenclaw common room"

"Cool, so can you show me there?"

"I would be honoured" he started heading for the door.

"You might want to wait for the others" She called after him.

Sirius turned around and came back "Certinately. So, if you're one of Tai's friends you must be from Australia?"

She nodded "Yeah"

"So how come you don't have his accent?" Sirius asked curiously.

She rolled her eyes "I get that a lot, People assume that because I have proper grammar I'm from England, it just makes my accent sound…less"

Sirius nodded and they were interrupted by another swoosh and another cloud of smoke.

When the soot was cleared Sirius saw a short girl with long light brown pigtails and a fringe staggering around with dizziness.

Carla pointed her wand at the girl "yziddy"

She blinked a couple of times before focusing on Carla "Why on earth did I let you convince me to go on an hour long floo trip?"

Carla grinned sheepishly "Hey, you're the one who brought three litres of the stuff"

The girl folded her arms and frowned at her friend "Floo powder is cheap in Australia!"

Sirius stepped forward and offered her his hand "Sirius Black at you're service"

"Melinda-Kim Piper, call me Mel" She said, looking at him slightly warily.

"The Dave Roberts of Hogwarts" Carla explained.

"Ohhhhhh" Mel nodded "Frances came just behind me"

Just on cue another girl came swooping through the fireplace. This one had slightly wavy dark brown hair and dark brown eyes. As soon as she came out of the fireplace she collapsed onto Sirius's now vacant chair with a hand to her forehead.

"Oh, the heat!"

Mel and Carla clanked at each other "Frances, its cooler here than in Australia"

Frances glared at Mel "Oh the heat!" she insisted.

Sirius looked slightly exhilarated "Woah am I dreaming? How come he gets so many friend girls?"

Carla shrugged "Well Dave is coming soon with our luggage; we're staying a few nights. He's about as much as a fake as you are. By the end of the week he'll probably have gone out with half the girls in the year and have so many phone numbers that he could throw a confetti party"

"Hey!" Said Sirius, just realising that she's insulted him.

She shrugged again "I mean that in a good way, he's one of my best friends isn't he?"

Sirius looked them over "One question, aren't girls in Australia supposed to be blonde with tans?"

Mel looked disgusted and Carla just shook her head "And, let me guess, we all ride to school on kangaroo's?"

"Really? Cool!" Sirius exclaimed.

Mel opened her mouth to explain when there was another whoosh. This time it was a boy with dark brown hair that had blonde highlights and sunny brown eyes.

Carla did the spell on him.

He dropped the five large bags that he was holding and almost collapsed on top of Frances, she hexed him and he went instead to the other seat.

"Long journey?" Mel asked, sounding amused.

"Hey, you try spinning for an hour with five enormous bags. Why did you insist on bringing all of your clothes?" He asked Frances.

She shrugged "Well I didn't know what kind of weather there was here, it could be snowing or something!"

"It's summer" Peter told her.

"Well it could be raining then!"

Sirius beamed, he had just realised that they had four more distractions for Tai, and this time he could take credit for them!

**Sorry that I haven't written for a while. You know, the first week of school, new classes, new people sighs but I managed to get another chappie done! This one is slightly longer than my others to make up for the wait.**

**Oh, and I know that it's unlikely that they wouldent have had their second potions lesson after about three weeks...or something like that, but hey, I'm bad at maths and...well It just seemed easier to do it this way. **

**I would like to thank my friends takes deep breath Sophie, Katie, Frances, Mel, Lizzie (sorry about the Peter thing!), Jordan, and me for being in my story…even though they didn't really have a choice.**

**_TO MAD OVER MOONEY: _**I have started to put some really big clues into this chappie, yet they blend in so perfectly that they are fairly hard to notice. Oh, and if you think that you've figured it out, please don't announce it in you're review, so that it will surprise others. I do so not put it past you!


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Full stop.**

**To Mad Over Mooney: **sigh you may as well start planning you're victory dance. If you can figure out the clue.

* * *

Tai sat in the dark blue chair by the fireplace, ignoring Paul who was talking about how wrong it was of Jordan to dump him, and how he had never been dumped etc. 

Tai sighed, wondering why James hated him so much. What had he ever done to him? Maybe it was Lily. James seemed a bit protective of her; maybe he should avoid her for a while.

Paul had stopped talking and was looking at him expectantly "Oh, yeah, what was she thinking?" Tai quickly added.

Paul nodded "Exactly, she doesn't know how lucky she was…"

Tai sighed again. Paul was a good friend, but when he got talking about himself it was very hard to stop. Tai had just learnt to nod and make occasional comments.

The portrait hole opened again, and a blur of purple and blue shot at him.

"TAI!" Frances exclaimed, flinging her arms around his neck and nearly throttling him.

"Frances" he managed to choke out "I can't breathe"

Unfortunately that just made her tighten her grip, he looked desperately over to Carla and Mel for help, Dave had already started flirting with some Ravenclaw girl.

Carla gave him a stern look "I have no sympathy for you, you don't write, you don't call in, you may as well just have vanished off the face of the earth" she turned and started talking to Sirius.

Tai groaned since he couldn't get enough air to sigh, Mel came over and poked Frances on the shoulder "Um…Frances, I would like Tai to be alive long enough to say hi. You can choke him later"

Frances let Tai out of her death grip and just beamed at him instead "This school is awesome! They have staircases that move!"

He hugged Mel and went over to Dave who had completely captivated the attention of a group of girls "Yeah, of course I can surf. I have won the junior world title three years in a row now"

Tai rolled his eyes and dragged him away "Please, don't try to break the heart of every girl in this school, most of these ones are heartless anyway"

Dave glared at him "I was just about to get to the good part!"

Tai shook his head.

They stopped by the others "So, you got a crush on anyone yet?" Dave asked.

Tai shook his head "I've got a date tonight with some girl, but no"

Carla looked over, surprised "So, where's Amber?"

Tai looked at Sirius questioningly. Sirius shrugged "In her room probably, and if you want to know how I got in here, it is because I am a genius"

Sirius took them back to the Gryffindor common room.

Mel went up the girl's staircase to get Amber while Frances and Carla scanned the room.

"**Hmmm, he's cute, he's cute, he's okay, ugh, ugly**" Frances wrinkled her nose and Carla stamped on her foot.

"Must you shout?"

* * *

Lily sat on her bed, finishing a charms essay 

"So, should I act nice to James so he teaches me well, or mean so that he doesn't think that I like him"

Tia was sitting next to her while Molly was brushing her hair and Amber was brushing her teeth.

"Ummm, nice, then mean" Tia said, sounding slightly distracted and staring out the window.

"Really?" Lily was surprised that Tia would be asking her to be mean to her friend.

Tia nodded "Yeah"

Lily frowned slightly "What do you think he'll teach me?"

Tia nodded again "Yeah"

Lily looked out the window where the Hufflepuff quiddich team was training and grinned.

"How about I become a really good chaser and replace you on the team?"

Tia jut nodded "Uh-huh"

Lily raised her eyebrows at her friend "Somebody has a crush on Jackson!" she sang.

This snapped Tia out of her daydream "Oh really, who?" she asked coolly.

Lily pretended to look out the window and wave to someone "Hi Jackson"

Tia spun around, then realised she'd been tricked and turned back to Lily "Oh very funny"

Lily giggled "Well this is news; I've never seen you have a crush before. I have, Molly has, even Amber has!"

Tia shook her head "I don't think that centaurs count"

Lily opened her mouth to speak when a strange girl walked in. She was short with long light brown hair in pigtails and blue eyes. Lily looked down at her "Um, this is the fith year girl's dormitory, the third years is over there" she pointed.

The girl glared at her "I'm not a first year! I'll have you know that I'm fifteen!"

Lily blinked "Uhhh, who are you?"

Amber poked her head out of the bathroom, with a mouthful of toothpaste "Mew!" she exclaimed, spraying the girl with toothpaste. "Ow, shorry" she ducked back in and spat out the mouthful.

She emerged again "Mel! Wow, what are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be in…well…Australia?"

"Floo powder is cheap in Australia" Mel nodded wisely.

Lily swapped a confused glance with Tia "Um, so you know her?" she asked

Amber nodded vigorously "Yeah! She's one of Tai's friends from Australia"

Lily brightened immediately "Oh hi!" she beamed.

Amber turned back to the girl "Are the others here, Frances, Dave, Carla?"

Mel nodded and Amber rushed down the stairs. Lily quickly followed her in case Tai was down there.

Two girls and a boy were in the common room with Tai. One of the girls, the one with wavy dark brown hair, was jumping up and down squealing while the other was looking around. The boy was running his hand through his hair, to make it neater rather than messier like Tia and James did.

The wavy haired girl stuck her hand at Lily "Hi! I'm Frances"

Lily shook her hand and then shook the bushy haired girls hand "Carla" she nodded, then turned to Amber.

"Oh, by the way, I have some…fan mail for you"

Amber looked at the envelope as if it was about to explode, which it might have been. "Not from Jake?"

Frances looked fondly at the envelope "He's just learning to write again"

Amber gingerly took it and opened it "Dear Abner, I will get you and huirt you if you try and take Frncaes away from mee" she snorted and chucked it behind her into the fire "How touching"

"It is!" Frances insisted "He's worried that you want to make me hate him. He is almost out of St Mungos now!"

Lily looked at Amber curiously "Is that the guy that you hexed because he insulted horseback riding?"

Carla rolled her eyes and nodded.

"How is Jake? I haven't seen him for ages; I hope that he's recovering well" Tai commented.

Dave hit him on the back of the head "The guy practically ruins you're life and you're asking how he is?"

Mel nodded "He's a freak Tai, who cares how he's doing?"

"I care! You know, sometimes I think that you guys forget that he is still my boyfriend1" Frances pouted.

Dave looked at Lily "Hey" He said, looking her up and down.

Tai grabbed his friends arm and started to drag him off "Come on, I better get ready for my date" they went out the portrait hole and back to the Ravenclaw common room.

Lily froze. Date?

Amber glanced at her wrist "Oh look at the time! I better go and...Feed Amigo!" she rushed off before Lily could comment that she didn't have a watch.

Sirius clapped a hand to his head "Oh, I must go and…Help Kitty pick out her nail polish" he rushed out of the room as well.

Lily stormed up to the girls dormitory and went into the bathroom "I'm gonna get ready" she muttered to Molly "entertain Ambers friends".

* * *

Sophie paced around the entrance hall, looking at her watch "He's late!" she exclaimed angrily. How dare Tai be late? 

Jordan glanced at her watch as well "Yeah, by three seconds"

Sophie waved the watch in Jordan's face "that is way past fashionably late!"

Katie and Lizzie were lounging on the staircase leading up to the Gryffindor common room. Lizzie looked up from the Transfiguration questions she was answering "What would happen if you transfigured a pig and a rabbit both at once? A. a pig with fur, or B. a hairless rabbit?"

Katie shrugged "Why are you doing that now? It's not due for ages!"

Lizzie frowned "It's good to be prepared!"

Jordan tossed her hair "Oh, go ask Peter"

Lizzie ignored her and went back to her homework "Sophie, remember how I asked you to set you're watch forwards three minutes?" Sophie blinked "He's not late" Lizzie explained.

Sophie sighed and went back to her pacing. She heard voices and looked over, there was a blonde head and a dark brown one she gasped and jumped up and down "He's here!"

* * *

Amber glared impatiently at the Marauders map "Is he there yet?" 

Sirius shrugged "Hey, us guys need time to-"

"-He's there, okay, Operation Keep-Tai-Busy-So-That-He-Can-Not-Interfere-With-Lily-And-James commences now!"

She and Sirius rushed outside to spy on their friends and make sure that nothing went wrong.

* * *

"So…err, what do you want to be when you grow up?" Tai asked. He and Katie were walking around the lake. He wondered why he had let Amber convince him to do this. He had already run out of questions to ask. 

"I want to start a butler academy" Katie stated.

Tai blinked "Um…pardon?"

"A butler academy. To train the greatest butlers on earth. See, they'd start out as Butler#13457, then after they graduate that course move onto James#13457, then Basil#13457, then the greatest rank would be Jeeves#13457. After that they graduate and go out to fill the world with butlers"

Tai blinked "Um…riiiight. So why do we need so many butlers?"

Katie seemed lost in thought "And they could all have little guinea pigs and dress them up like butlers or maybe dingoes"

"You like dingoes?"

"Oh yes, but I'm not sure weather I like them best. Dogs are great too. I wonder what type of dog would make the best butler?"

Tai sighed; this was going to be a long night.

* * *

"So, why do you hate Cassandra so much?" Sirius asked. 

He and Amber were hiding at the quiddich pitch. They had forgotten when Lily and James had agreed to meet and had come an hour early.

"Oh, you know, she's a spoilt, stuck up, two faced, bitch"

Sirius waved his hand "Apart from that, you really seem to hate her"

Amber sighed "Well, since we have an hour to fill I may as well tell you. Remember when I first came to Hogwarts?"

Sirius nodded

"Well, you probably wont remember, since back then…and still now, you were too big headed to pay attention to some weird, unattractive, new girl" She glared at him.

"Hey, I was thirteen!"

Amber ignored him

"My best friend…well my only friend, was Ashleigh Fae."

"Wait…isn't she…"

"Yeah, Cassandra's best friend. Well she was always a bit…admirable of Cass. Then, Cassy and I had a bit of a fight, she seemed to think that I spilt dragon dung on her on purpose-"

"-Did you?"

"Of course. So she decided to ruin my life. Hmm, I guess that makes three people then, Cassandra, Dad and Abigail"

Sirius opened his mouth to ask who Abigail was, but decided not too. Amber seemed lost in thought.

"But then I got even with her for being partnered with Remus, since we're the best at Care of magical creatures…"

_Hmmm, Remus_ Sirius thought _Gasp! Me and James never got to find out what Peter knows about him. This must be solved!_

Suddenly a figure walked out onto the quiddich pitch. "Who's that?" asked Amber.

Sirius squinted at the familiar figure "James?"

Amber glanced at the watch she had transfigured "A little early"

Sirius shrugged, this was the perfect opportunity to ask James about Remus. He quickly hopped out from under the bleachers and started walking towards his friend "I'll talk to him to fill in the time" he hissed at Amber, scurrying away before she could refuse.

"James!" James looked up and waved at Sirius.

"Hi, I'm just waiting for Lily"

Sirius nodded and walked up to James "Hey, we never did find out why Remus stopped dating in third year" He said.

James's face lit up "No, we didn't. I wonder what it was."

Sirius thought for a moment about what Peter had said, then gasped with sudden comprehension. "The weather!"

"What?"

"When Peter wouldn't tell us, he commented on the weather. Remus must have some rare disease to do with the weather, it all makes sense now!"

"Yeah, Something other than the werewolf thing, like…**cloud disease**!"

Sirius gasped again "**That's why he's recently been covering himself in dirt; it must be some new cure!**"

"**That explains why he hates it when it's cloudy out**!" James shouted.

"We must confront him and tell him that he doesn't need to hide it any longer, the truth is out!"

"Yes, he should know that we will stand by him, even when his disease is at its highest"

"Maybe that's why he sometimes gets that strange discoloration"

James turned and looked back at the red headed figure walking towards him.

"Quick! Lily's coming, shoo!"

Sirius went back to the entrance of the quiddich pitch, then went back through the bleachers to Amber.

"Cloud disease?" Amber asked questioningly

"Uh-uh I don't want to hear another word about my good friend's condition. How do you know?"

Amber shook her head "for starters, if you didn't want me to hear you're 'great revelation' why were you shouting?"

* * *

"So when you turn the broom, make sure to bend with it, otherwise you can get in quite tricky situations" 

Lily nodded absently; she had much better things to do than listen to minor information, like wondering how Tai's date was going.

She looked up at James "So can I fly now?" she asked. Maybe she would be able to see him from the air, unless of coarse they were inside.

"…And if you follow all my safety rules you should be fine" Lily smiled at James, but inwardly groaned. Spending the evening with him was not her idea of fun.

"Okay, remember how to get up?"

Lily nodded "Yes, I kick up off the ground" She had seen Tia doing it a thousand times. Flying couldn't be that hard, it looked so easy during the quiddich matches.

"Alright, go I'll be watching from down here"

Lily kicked up off the ground and felt herself zooming up at an alarming rate.

"Aaagh!" She clung to the broom and tried to remember how to slow down. She quickly leant forward slightly and the broom came to a wobbly halt in the air.

She was now too far up too see any of the grounds. Lily leant forwards to go down and shrieked as she started plummeting down towards the ground.

She pulled up again and sat for a minute while her breathing eased. Maybe this wasn't so easy after all.

She looked around and squinted at two figures down by the broom shed, one had blonde hair. She squinted at the other one, her head only came up to Tai's mouth and she had smooth dark brown hair.

Tai was showing her his broom; Lily had never seen it before she leant forward to try and see it better. It looked black and white. She leant further forward to see closer.

Suddenly the broom shot forward again. Unfortunately for Lily, forward was straight down. She let go of the broom in shock and it gently flew down to the ground. Lilt screamed as the ground started approaching rapidly.

She felt the cold air sting against her face and whip her hair wildly around.

Just when she was only a few meters from the ground, a figure swooped down next to her and caught her. For a moment she thought it was James until she saw a pair of bright, blue-green eyes.

She just had a moment to wonder if her hair was looking okay before she blacked out.

* * *

James was frozen to the spot as he watched Lily plummet towards the ground. Must help Lily. He thought numbly. He was just about to get his broom to come over to him when a figure swooped over and caught her. 

Tai landed and ran over to him "James I-"

James turned to him, his face consorted with rage "I don't care, go out with Lily, break her heart. I DO NOT CARE!"

Tai dropped Lily in shock "James, I don't want Lily I-"

James didn't let him finish, he stormed off to the castle.

Tai sighed. A figure stormed up to him "Oh, that's right, just go off without any explanation to just rescue some red head, I can handle rejection you know!"

Tai sighed again. This was all just too much. How come everything in England had to be so complicated?

He threw up his hands "Fine, fine…fine" he sighed again and his shoulders dropped. From now on he was avoiding Lily and James at all costs.

"Come on" He said to Katie "I'll take you back to the castle. If I don't Sophie or Jordan will probably strangle me"

Katie nodded "So, what about her?" she pointed to Lily's figure on the ground.

Tai sighed again "Leave her, I have a feeling that Amber and Sirius will be near by anyway" They made their way back to the castle.

* * *

"**AAAAARRRRAAAGGGGGHHHHHH!" **Amber screamed in frustration as Tai and Katie left the pitch. 

She glared at Sirius "Get out the chains"

Sirius groaned "No use, James has decided that he doesn't care as he so nicely shouted for our benefit before"

"Who cares? I'm gonna chain him to the wall anyway!"

Sirius shook his head "Good idea. James will have decided that he likes her again in half an hour anyway"

"Okay, I'll take her to the hospital wing" Amber made her way over to Lily's limp form.

Sirius nodded "I'd better go and confront my friend about the truth that he has been hiding from us all these years"

"Hmmm, the cloud disease"

Amber went and got Lily, then took her to the hospital wing.

She let Lily thump onto the hospital bed; she was heavier than she looked. Lily's eyelids fluttered slightly.

"Wh-wh-where am I?" Lily mumbled.

"Hospital wing" Amber answered glumly. She was running out of ideas. Who knew that matchmaking was so complilicated?

Madame Pomfrey came and bustled Amber out "She needs rest, you can come back tomorrow"

Amber rolled her eyes and walked back to the common room.

Before she could reach the portrait hole she was knocked over by Sirius who was storming out of the common room.

"Hey, whats wrong?" Amber asked. Sirius ignored her and went off down the hall.

Amber went into the common room. There were a few first years running around and a third year doing his homework.

She went up to the stairs to her common room. Then saw Tia and Jackson in a corner. "Go back to your own common room!" Amber called at then, then giggled and rushed up to the girls dorm before Tia could throw something at her…or Jackson.

Teasing these sporty types could get hazardous.

She came up and saw Carla and Mel in the dorm room. Frances was with Molly in the bathroom, sharing hair brushing techniques and Dave was with Tai.

Carla was lying on the floor staring at the roof while Mel was pacing around and ranting.

"Do I look like a third year to you?"

"Yes" Amber sighed and flopped down on her bed.

Carla sat up "You look terrible, something wrong?"

"Tai" Amber replied.

Mel and Carla nodded. Amber had lived in Australia with them long enough so that they understood her language.

"So how long are you guys staying?" Amber asked.

"Oh, not long. A week. We have OWL's to study for soon. We just really came to say 'hi' we haven't seen you in ages" Carla went back to staring at the roof.

"Yeah, and we wanted to see if the food was good at Hogwarts" Mel added.

"Maybe I'll come and visit you guy's some time. Me and Lily-"

"-Lily and _I_" Carla corrected her.

Amber groaned "Please tell me that you don't still want to become an Editor"

Carla opened her mouth to reply when a first year poked her head into the room "Um, Professor Dumbledore has requested a meeting in the great hall now"

"We better go" Mel said as the first year hurried out "We're in danger of Carla starting her Grammar is good speech again"

Carla shook her head and followed Mel and Amber out of the room. Frances and Molly came out after them. Both of their hair was died bright rainbow colours.

"Um…what's with the hair?" Amber asked.

Molly twirled a strand around "Like it? Frances brought some from Australia. It stays like this for three days"

Amber rolled her eyes as they went to the great hall and sat down next to Tia. When Tia saw them she smiled at Amber and threw a scrunched up piece of parchment at her. "That was for before" she whispered.

Dumbledore stood up and motioned silence. "Thank you all for giving up you're time to come and listen. I have a nice announcement for you all. Since OWL's and NEWT's are coming up soon for our older students this is the perfect time to give them all a break before they really have to start studying"

Amber groaned. Start? What had they been doing the rest of the year?

"So, in a weeks time I have decided to have an entirely muggle ball!" Dumbledore beamed.

A rise of chatter immediately started.

"No robes allowed, and no magic either" Dumbledore noted.

Amber noticed that most of the teachers were glaring at Dumbledore. Probably thinking about all the work that they would have to do to get ready in time.

"We can go shopping on Wednesday, we have another Hogsmede trip" Molly said excitedly.

"Shopping?" Amber said slowly "as in clothes?" Molly nodded excitedly and Amber groaned.

* * *

"A ball!" Lily squeaked excitedly. 

Molly jumped up and down a couple of times "Yeah, muggle clothes. Amber and Tia are thrilled of coarse"

Lily grinned; this was going to be great. "So do any of you have dates yet?"

"Tia's going with Jackson and Amber's going with Sirius"

"And you?" Lily asked, thinking that she knew the answer.

"No, my dog attracts more guy's than me" Molly looked over at Chessie who was sitting at the end of Lily's bed, happily wagging her tail.

"And…would any particular person from Australia have managed to find a partner yet?" Lily asked.

Molly looked at her innocently "Oh yes, I think that Dave has five partners already"

Lily threw a pillow at her

"No, Tai's not going with anyone yet. We're going shopping in Hogsmede today, but if you're still not well…"

Lily leapt up out of the hospital bed "I can go now, I'm better" She told Madame Pomfrey who just shook her head and muttered something about the miracle cure of shopping.

Lily and Molly rushed down into the great hall. Lily saw a familiar blonde figure making his way through the crowd.

"Just a minute" she said to Molly, then quickly hurried over to him.

* * *

"Tai!" Tai froze as he heard the familiar voice. He quickly slipped further into the crowd. 

Somehow Lily managed to appear at his side again "Hi!" she said brightly.

"Oh hey" he said quietly, desperately hoping that James wasn't around.

"So, have you got a partner for the ball yet?" Lily asked.

Tai winced. That probably would have been a good idea. He smiled brightly at her "No, not yet. I was just about to ask…" He quickly looked through the crowd and spotted Katie and her friends. He grabbed Katie's arm.

"Hey, wanna go to the dance with me?" he asked quickly.

Katie thought for a moment. Ignoring Lizzie and Sophie who were nodding vigorously behind him.

"Hmmm, I'll have to think about-"

"Yes!" Sophie cut in for her, dragging her friend off before she could complain.

Tai turned back to Lily and winced at her downtrodden face. She had probably wanted to go with somebody that she knew. But he couldn't go with her. If he did then James would hate him even more. He didn't need to make any more enemies'.

* * *

Lily sighed as she went back to Molly "Well, I guess that their date went well" 

Molly patted her friend on the shoulder "Who cares? Let's go shopping!"

Lily brightened up and they went to go and drag Amber and Tia off to Hogsmede.

* * *

**Sorry for the wait! I hope that you liked this chapter. I'm going to start trying to make the chapters mostly one persons point of view like I did at the start, rather than heaps of people. **

**Yes, I did have to put a ball in! I couldn't have a story without at least one!**

**Sorry if all the characters are getting confusing. They'll go away soon. And they are there for a reason! I didn't just put them in because I felt like it…cough**

**I'll update my next chappie as soon as possible.**

**Midnight Filly. **


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I D.O N.O.T O.W.N H.A.R.R.Y. P.O.T.T.E.R.**

_**This chapter is dedicated to my friend Mel who recently broke her arm. At least you don't need it to read!**_

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* * *

****

James stormed back to the common room, Suit couldn't find him there, unlike Sirius he didn't know all of the passwords.

He stormed into the room and saw Sirius, Remus, Peter and a bunch of other people.

"I'm angry" he announced, and started making his way over to his dorm.

"Wait, James!" Sirius exclaimed "Before you storm off you have to help me let our dear friend know that he can now confide in us about his dark fear.

James gasped, realising that they still had to help Remus with the cloud disease "I think we should go somewhere that we wont be disturbed" he nodded soberly.

Peter and Remus looked at each other, confused, but followed the other two up the stairs anyway.

Remus, James and Peter sat on James's bed, which was in the middle of the room and sat down…well James more slumped; he had gone through a tough afternoon.

Sirius started pacing in front of them, trying to think of an easy way to confront his dear friend.

"Remus, there is really no easy way to say this…we know"

Remus looked startled for a minute, then went back to being calm "Know what?"

James looked over at Peter "we found out what you were talking about, that day, those many years ago at Hogsmede"

Peter frowned, wasn't the Hogsmede trip only last week? Then he gasped and looked up at Sirius, panic in his eyes "What! How did you find out?"

Remus was starting to look worried again "Peter, what do they know?"

Peter took a deep, shaky breath "I've know since fourth year, and now they know that-"

"You have a rare and dangerous cloud disease!" Sirius wailed.

Peter and Remus were too shocked to say anything for a moment so they just stared at him.

_Oh, the poor things are probably so shocked, it needs time to sink in_. James thought.

Suddenly they both dissolved in a fit of laughter.

"Cloud disease?" Remus managed to choke out.

James and Sirius looked indignant.

"It's a perfectly logical explanation" Sirius said grumpily.

"How do you figure that?" Peter laughed.

"Well, when we asked why he hadn't been on a date since third year you mentioned the weather!" James exclaimed "And it was cloudy!"

Remus suddenly stopped laughing and stared at Peter, pale. "What?"

Peter looked at his feet "I kinda figured something out, you stare at her sometimes, and you were in a bad mood when she went out with Paul…"

Remus, James and Sirius all stared at him for a minute.

Remus quickly stood up and strode over to his bed and yanked the hangings closed "Goodnight"

Sirius leapt up and started hammering on the curtains. Remus had cast some sort of spell to make them rock solid.

"She…SHE…Which she? How come I didn't know? You never tell me anything! If you have stopped dating completely, what chances do you think you have with her? Which her? I never see you stare at anyone? She is human right? WHO?"

James just sat there, dumbstruck "But…but…it had to be the cloud disease, everything made perfect sense, and…YOU!"

He tackled Peter and pinned him to the ground, using his wand "WHO IS IT!"

Peter stubbornly shut his mouth, then had an inspiration "I wonder if Lily is going to the dance with anyone?"

James's face brightened, then fell as quickly as if somebody had turned on a light "Suit" he muttered darkly, then stormed over to his bed "Goodnight!"

He ducked under his scarlet covers to try and muffle Sirius's shouts of "Is it, Dana, is it Cindy, is it Meg…"

* * *

"Oh wow, look at this one!" Lily rushed towards the glowing golden dress and held it up to herself "How do I look?"

Molly rushed over as well "No, not that one, you need something green!"

Lily shook her head "I am so sick of green; I always have to wear it and now am sick of green stuff. I want something different for a change"

Molly cocked her head and looked at her friend "Maybe blue"

Frances skipped over to them "Blue or aqua" she nodded.

Carla and Mel came up behind them "This is the fith dress shop we've been to!" Carla grinned "and we haven't found anything!"

Molly tossed back her hair while looking through the rack "This shop always has the best stuff" she pulled out a slightly shiny knee-length aqua dress with thin straps. "This will look perfect for you" she handed it to Lily who went off to the shiny cream coloured dressing rooms.

Molly kept searching as Tia and Amber came up. "I don't see why I have to wear a dress" Amber complained.

Molly looked at her "You're next!" She stuck her head back into the rack "What colour should Amber have?"

Carla smiled "I know the perfect colour. It will match her date"

The others stared at her blankly. Carla sighed "black!"

Frances and Molly both burst out laughing while Amber rolled her eyes "Oh ha ha"

Molly pulled out a short, strapless black dress. Amber shook her head and backed away "I refuse to wear anything above the knee"

Molly looked a bit more and pulled out a slightly longer dress.

"And it has to have sleeves"

Molly pulled out another dress, this one was almost ankle length and had straps and a loose cotton skirt.

Amber sighed and took it, she had run out of complaints "Fine"

She followed Lily over to the changing rooms.

Molly then targeted Tia "Red" she nodded

Tia wrinkled her nose "Red?"

"Think of the Flaming Phoenixes" Mel said, referring to the quiddich team.

"Oh" Tia looked happier.

Molly handed her a simple red dress with straps.

"What do you think?" Lily came out of the dressing room and twirled around.

"Wow, you look great!" Carla commented walking around her.

"This is so exciting!" Frances squealed. She and Molly started jumping up and down and screaming.

Mel cocked her head and squinted "If you do this it looks a bit like a fish!"

Amber stomped out of the dressing room and held her arms out "Happy now?"

The girls all stared at her for a moment "Wow, Amber, you actually have a figure" said Lily jokingly.

Amber stuck her tongue out "Are you saying that all of my clothes are shapeless?"

"Yes" They all said in unison.

Amber looked down at the dress "Well Abigail will be happy to have it after I'm done with it. It's black" she said bluntly.

The others all knew to stay silent at any mention of Amber's stepmother. Amber looked up again and shrugged. "So, aren't you guys going to get some items of torture?"

Tia came out in her dress and struck a models pose "How do I look?"

"Great" Molly clapped her hands together happily.

Tia, Lily and Amber went to get changed back while the others continued looking.

"I've never worn a dress before" Mel whined, She started searching through the clothes racks and throwing the ones she didn't want behind her.

She only paused to look at a silky green, knee-length halter dress with material leaves sewn along the front, then she continued to throw the dresses.

Carla picked up the light green dress "I'll take this one" she said, walking over to the dressing rooms.

Molly picked out a dark blue satin halter dress out of the growing pile "this is good!"

Mel finally pulled the last dress of the rack and crossed her arms grumpily "Their all too…girlie!"

Lily looked at the large pile of dresses "Well they are dresses"

Frances picked through the pile a bit more "I can't find anything either!"

"Then try another shop" Amber rolled her eyes and looked down at the bright, metallic blue silk bag that held her dress "Whatever happened to plastic bags?"

"Fashion!" Molly called out, rushing off and dragging Frances and Mel behind her.

* * *

James continued flicking through the Tie rack "Its surprising how many pretty colours there are" he said, pushing it harder so that the colours flashed in front of his eyes.

Sirius looked at him disgustedly "please never talk like that again, you sound like a girl" he pulled out a bright, golden orange tie "Hey, I can match my date!"

The others all gave him blank looks "Amber" he sighed.

"Ohhh, heh" James said, now spinning the ties in the opposite direction.

Remus rose his eyebrows at him "Doesn't looking at ties remind you of a certain person that you swore never to speak of again?"

James gave him a funny look "No, but when we have to pick out suits I don't want any of you to use the word suit, you will refer to them as S's" he went back to his tie rack mumbling "Stupid Suit"

"So, do you think I have a chance with Elizabeth?" Peter asked, fiddling with a lime green tie.

"Not with that tie!" Sirius said disgustedly.

Peter hurriedly put it down.

"Well it probably depends who's with you at the time" Remus said, he and Peter looked over at Sirius who was now looking at a watch that was flashing different colours.

"Hey, don't look at me, I wouldn't dream of getting in the way if my friends didn't want me to"

Remus glared at him "What about that time I was trying to get my potions book from Kitty and you were too busy flirting with her to get out of my way?"

"I can't help it that your sisters ho…a very nice girl" Sirius said defensively.

"Or the time that I was trying to ask out Alice and you kept on bringing up all the times I messed up in class that day?" Peter asked.

"You were much too good for her" Sirius suddenly found a display of shoelaces "Oooh, they have the curly ones!"

Peter just shrugged and looked over at Remus "I think that I'll be safest with you, Mooney, can I borrow the map?" he asked James.

James just continued to stare at the still spinning Tie rack "Look at all the colous"

Remus shrugged and took the map from him, then he and Peter left their hypnotised friend, and Sirius who was laughing at an orange curly shoelace, in peace.

"So, do you honestly think I have a chance?" Peter asked nervously.

"Sure, I guess, just remember not to be too intimidated by her friends whispering and giggling at you, and the fact that they'll all be staring at you, and their angry glares, and you'll be fine"

Peter gulped.

* * *

"So, now we have the dresses, but we are still missing the most important accessory" Molly said wisely.

They had finally found dresses for Frances and Mel. Frances's dress was sea green and Mel's was dark blue.

"Um…what?" Lily asked, wondering what she was forgetting.

"Guy's" Frances said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I'll just use my old one" Amber said glumly.

Lily sighed "Tai's going with Katie"

Amber punched the air with her fist "YES!" she then realised that this might not be such a good thing for Lily "Uh, I mean, that's too bad"

Molly waved her hand dismissively "Oh, we'll get you another one"

"When you're heart gets ripped out and stamped on, pick it up and throw it as hard as you can at their back. Those things can hurt" Amber quoted wisely.

Lily looked at her, confused "Who said that?"

"I did" Amber glanced over at a nearby quiddich shop "Since I've got Sirius and Tia's got Jackson, can we please leave this torture?"

Tia, who had been gazing dreamily at the shop, snapped out of her revere and nodded "I do not want to witness you 'accessorising'"

Molly sighed "Fine!" She sighed. They rushed off, scared that she might make them stay.

Lily looked at the Australian girls "Are you guys gonna ask or just wait?" she asked.

Mel shrugged "Wait, I don't know anyone here"

"ASK!" Frances exclaimed "Otherwise I might be stuck with an outdated edition!"

Carla just studied her nails "Neither, I just had my heart broken, I don't feel like anything to do with guys"

Mel folded her arms "You did not have your heart broken, you said like, what? Two words to the guy"

Carla gave her an icy glare "I did too care, I was completely distraught"

"When I told you about Mickey-blue-eyes changing schools you just blinked and said; and here I quote "uh-huh"" Frances complained.

"Mickey-" Lily started

Mel waved her hand "Frances gave him a nick name"

They looked at Frances who shrugged "What, he has blue eyes!"

Carla rolled her eyes "The point is, that I'm not going with anyone, and, by the way, I don't care if it is social suicide"

"My problem is that nobody knows me! So who will ask me?" Mel complained.

"The completely desperate guys finding dates at the last minute" Lily nodded.

Mel folded her arms "Oh goody"

"How about we go ask Kitty, she knows pretty much every guy at this school" Lily suggested, seeing Remus's sister, and hoping that Kitty would know somebody to go with her. Unlike Carla she did not want to be going alone.

Kitty was leaning against a wall and examining her nails while Opal, as usual, was hiding behind her hair.

"Hey Kitty, are you going to try and get Diggory to ask you to the dance?" Lily asked.

Kitty looked up, looking confused "Who?"

Opal rolled her eyes and looked up "She's over Diggory, apparently he did one of her top ten 'don'ts'"

Kitty crossed her arms and glared at her friend "blinking more than the acceptable amount of times in my presence is a perfectly good reason to stop liking someone!"

Lily shook her head, Kitty was always amazing her with the level of vanity one person could have.

"So, do you know anyone who could go to the dance with Mel, or Frances…or me?"

"I" Carla cut in.

"Or _I_" Lily sighed.

Kitty smoothed back her hair "Sure, I have a list" she pulled out a list with names on it, some of the names had ticks on them.

"There's…Ummm, like Ravenclaws?" Kitty asked. Mel nodded.

"How about Angel, nice guy, fith year, smart…"

"Okay" Mel smiled brightly.

"Come on, I'll introduce you" Kitty insisted, dragging her off.

She paused and looked back at the others "My brothers free, and Lily, just go with James!" with that she rushed off.

Lily folded her arms "I am not going with James!"

"Okay, come with me to ask…uhh…" Frances paused "Kitty's brother"

"Remus" Molly nodded.

* * *

"So, who do you think you'll ask?" Sirius asked James. They were walking around Hogsmede to try and find Peter and Remus.

James shrugged "I don't know, Lily?"

Sirius shook his head "No, you've gotta show her that you wont always be there for her"

James looked over at a dress shop that was filled with screaming girls "But I will always be there for her!"

Sirius sighed, "Take my advice, girls like it when your not always around"

"Okay, so I should ask someone else?"

Sirius nodded and looked at all of the girls around the streets and in the shops "It's not like their hard to find"

They finally saw Remus and Peter, standing with Elizabeth and her friends.

"Go with one of them" Sirius suggested, "Then we can spy on Peter at the same time!"

James nodded and scanned the girls "Well, Liz will probably go with Peter, Katie's going with _Suit, _Jordan…will probably hex me…so that leaves" He looked at Sophie, then shrugged.

"Sophie's okay, we're potions partners. She's pretty good looking, dark hair, hazel eyes; she's got a pretty weird sense of humour"

"You just described yourself" Sirius hit his friend on the back of his head.

"Yeah, well the thing is, she's _believable_. Lily will _believe _that I'm over her"

With that James strode up to the group of girls "Hey Sophie! Going with anyone to the dance?"

"Not yet" She said brightly.

"Then you won't mine going with me?"

Sophie beamed "Sure, I'll go with you" with that she turned to Katie and they both started squealing.

Sirius winced, how did girls manage to squeal at the exact pitch that hurt his ears. "Hey Jordan" he smiled at her "I appreciated you're gift"

Jordan looked over at him "Ugh, its you" She grabbed her friends arms and started dragging them away "Okay, come on, you've all got dates now"

Sirius turned to Peter in mock surprise "She said yes?"

Peter rolled his eyes and nodded "Surprisingly" he then grinned "And we actually had a conversation without you butting in!" **A/N: I'm sorry Lizzie! Someone had to go with Peter…Please don't hurt me!**

"So Remus, who will you be asking?" Sirius grinned.

"I don't know, I may wait a couple of days until-"

"**Oy, Remus!**"Molly called out, she was dragging Frances with her, Lily and Carla were following behind them.

"Wanna go to the dance with me?" Frances asked, panting slightly from hurrying after Molly.

Peter folded his arms and looked at James "How come everyone makes it look so easy?"

"Because the worst thing that can happen is they say 'no'" Carla said as she and Lily walked up.

"Who are you guys going with?" Lily asked.

_She cares! She cares! She cares! She cares! She cares! _James thought happily.

"Well I'm going with Nighten-Amber, Peters going with Liz James is going with Sophie, and I'm guessing that Remus is going with Frances" Sirius replied.

Instead of looking disappointed like she was supposed to, Lily's face lit up "That's great!"

Frances looked at Remus suspiciously "Is that a yes or a no?"

Remus sighed "Yes, otherwise your friends will probably scratch my eyes out"

"Damn right we will!" Mel said, coming up and grinning "I'm going with Angel!"

"Who?"

"Doesn't matter"

"So who are _you _going with?" Remus asked Kitty, who had come with Mel.

"Diggory?" James guessed.

Kitty looked disgusted "No!"

"He blinked too much" Molly explained, sounding sympathetic.

Sirius nodded "Ahhh, the top ten don'ts, I remember when I broke one, you punched me through the wall!" He complained, glaring at Kitty.

Kitty crossed her arms defensively "You were breaking all ten at once, and it was a weak wall!"

Remus looked alarmed "You punched him through a wall!"

Kitty shrugged "Well I wasn't allowed to use magic, it was during the holidays"

Remus jut sighed "You will be the death of me"

"Yes _Mother_" Kitty flipped her hair over her shoulder and started to walk off "Doesn't it seem weird how he always acts like my mother?" she asked Sirius.

Sirius started nodding, but then stopped when he saw the look on Remus's face.

"Anyway, I haven't decided on who I'm going with yet" Kitty twirled a strand of hair around her finger "I basically have my pick, I mean, who wouldn't want to go with me?"

Remus rolled his eyes "I hate girls who think that their Merlin's gift to guys" he said, staring pointedly at Kitty.

She looked insulted "I don't think that. I _know_ it" She smiled and then left to find Opal.

Remus turned to see Sirius, Peter and James nodding thoughtfully.

"She is right you know" James said, when he saw Remus looking at him questioningly.

Remus just sighed.

* * *

"Thank Merlin we escaped unharmed!" Amber stormed into the quiddich shop and collapsed into one of the chairs.

"Hmmm" Tia said, absently looking around. Usually she would be thrilled to be here, but today she had bigger things on her mind.

_Like how I'm failing everything! _Tia bit her lip and pulled her hair out of her ponytail again to re-do it. Whenever she was nervous she usually turned to her hair.

Normally she wouldn't care at all that she was going horribly at school, but now she really needed to get her marks up. McGonagall had come to see her and told her that unless she got at least three OWL's she couldn't be on the quiddich team anymore.

_I wonder how James does it. _James somehow managed to get top marks for everything, and be one of the start players on the quiddich team.

"Right?" Amber asked, poking her on the shoulder.

Tia realised that she'd been staring into space "Oh, yeah, right, definitely"

Amber glared at her "Since when do you think that quiddich is the dumbest game on earth?"

Tia sighed, she hadn't told any of her friends because she already knew what their reactions would be.

Lily would frantically start going on about how the owls were coming up and she was going to fail them all, Ambers would be to quit the prissy quiddich team and spend all her time in the library and Molly's would be to read a book.

She didn't really want to spend her afternoon calming down a frantic Lily, and she was never quitting the quiddich team and she had enough sense to know to read a book.

A sharp jolt on the back of her head told her that Amber had noticed that she wasn't listening anymore.

"Tia! You're going as spacey as Molly, or even sometimes Lily, you were my last hope! Please don't tell me that you're daydreaming about pretty boy!"

Tia rolled her eyes "I was just thinking about quiddich, this is a quiddich shop, and don't call him that!"

Amber folded her arms "First Molly, desperately hoping that some boy may someday like her, then Lily, hopelessly in love with my stupid cousin, now you!"

"Hey, what about you!" Tia said defensively "How would you like it if I called Sirius Pretty boy?"

Amber grinned "Hey, good idea, I can use that!"

Tia stared at her "Amber I do not understand you, one moment you're hating Sirius's guts and cursing him every opportunity you get, next thing you two are going out yet you still seem to hate each other" Tia sighed, her head was hurting. She turned and stormed out of the shop, heading back to Hogwarts.

She needed to study.

* * *

Sirius sighed as he looked around in the fresh cool air. He leapt joyfully after a stray leaf and his nose twitched at all the strange smells in the forest late at night.

He had decided to go for a late night stroll, and so had turned into his animagi form, a big black dog.

He was just walking along the edge of the forest, last time he had entered the forest he had had a bad run in with the centaur heard, they probably needed some time for the stars to tell them that Sirius Rules.

He walked along, wondering if he should go and visit the pack of wolves that lived deep in the forest.

Suddenly he heard foot steps approaching, he could smell human.

Instead of doing the smart thing and walking off, he did the Sirius thing and turned back into a human.

His arms and legs prickled as the thick black hair was pulled back into his skin and he felt his body rearrange itself.

He shook slightly, it was always weird turning back into a human from a dog, it sort of felt like earmuff's had been slapped on him, and a sheet pulled over his eyes, but after a couple of minutes he got used to it.

He saw a figure emerging from the thick foliage, pulling leaves out of his blonde hair. Sirius frowned, it wasn't one of his friends, Peter was his only blonde friend and he was much shorter than this person, and the figures hair was darker than Peters.

Sirius walked over and stopped short as he recognised who it was.

The person turned around and his blue green eyes widened in shock.

"Tai?" Sirius asked.

* * *

**A/N: He he, a cliff hanger. I'm sorry, but I love cliff hangers! I'm really sorry that this took so long to write, I've been going through a horrible case of writers block. I also got a bit tired of my story. But I wrote a one-shot and now my writers block has gone. **

**Please review! I'm not writing my next chapter until I feel appreciated! Well, I will write it, but it will be better if I feel appreciated.**

**The next chapter will come soon!**

**Midnight Filly **


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns Harry Potter**

* * *

"Oh, um, Sirius…hey" Tai self consciously brushed the dirt and leaves off of himself.

"What are you doing out here?" Sirius asked suspiciously.

"I'm…err, what are you doing out here?" Tai crossed his arms.

"Oh…um…I'm…walking my dog!" Sirius smiled, glad that he came up with such a good cover story.

Tai blinked at him "So where is your dog?"

Sirius paused. _Good question. _"He…he ran off" Sirius nodded and patted his legs "Here Padfoot, Padfoot"

"Isn't Padfoot your nickname?" Tai looked confused.

"Oh…I named him after me…so why are you here again?" Sirius quickly changed the subject.

"Oh…well…um, I'm…brushing my teeth" Tai nodded.

"Outside in the middle of the night?" Sirius asked.

"Well in Australia at this time I would be brushing my teeth, and sometimes I get homesick so I brush my teeth now, and I go outside because I don't want to disturb anyone"

Sirius nodded, trying to remember how far behind…or ahead, Australia was.

"Okay, well I better go and find my dog, heeere Padfoot" Sirius called, walking off and sighing.

Behind him Tai slumped against a tree and gave a sigh of relief, watching as a couple of bats flew out from the forest.

* * *

"So if I put the card here, then it will probably fall down because that card is tilted slightly, but if I put it here then the card that looks like its about to explode will most likely explode" Lily muttered, concentrating on the card castle that she and Amber were building.

Amber was slumped on the table her head resting in her hand "Lily, you do realise that no matter how long you sit there talking to yourself, eventually you will have to put that card down and it will explode"

Lily shook her head "No, there has to be another way"

Amber sighed and looked around the common room; it was mostly filled with giggling girls, talking excitedly about the dance that afternoon.

A couple of boys were hanging around and trying to look cool, but failing pathetically, and some school freaks were busily doing homework.

Wait…Amber looked closer at one of them, probably studying the hardest.

"Tia?" She asked shocked. Tia always left her homework until Sunday afternoon, and here she was, carefully working on it on Saturday morning.

"Hey, Molly" Amber called to her friend, seeing that there was no way that Lily was going to put down her card anytime this century.

Molly looked up from where she'd been staring at the boys "Yeah?"

"Have you noticed anything strange about Tia?"

Molly coked her head and looked over at the girl "Um…she's not on her broom?"

"No! She's studying!"

Molly just shrugged "Well she probably just wants to have the whole day to practise for the quiddich match on Monday"

Lily looked up from the card castle "Don't we have classes Monday?"

Molly shook her head "No, we get a day off for Merlin's Birthday"

"He died, what, seventy billion years ago and we're still celebrating his birthday?" Amber asked.

Molly just shrugged "Don't complain, we get a day off"

Lily went back to her castle.

"So where are your Australian friends?" Molly asked.

"Well, Mel's following that guy around…whats his name…Angle? Dave's probably with Tai, Carla's helping that other guy with his Charms work, she's good at charms, and Frances could be anywhere"

Just as she finished speaking, the card castle exploded and she, Lily and Molly were covered in soot.

The portrait hole opened and a very angry looking Carla stormed in, covered in bruises.

"Never again" she grumbled, not even seeming to notice that the others were still covered in black dust.

"Um…Carla?" Lily started.

She just sighed and did a quick spell to clean them up.

"So what happened to you?" Amber asked bluntly.

"How could anyone possibly confuse a retrieving spell with a banishing spell?" Carla asked.

"Very easily" Molly said wisely.

A dark haired second year, looking very sheepish came into the room and tossed a tennis ball at Carla "Thanks for the help" he said, nervously edging away.

Lily picked up the ball and looked at the bruises over Carla's arms "Ouch" she noted.

Carla continued to glare at the wall while Frances hurried in, looking shocked.

"Whats wrong?" Molly asked "You look like you've walked through a ghost"

"I just saw a pack of tennis balls flying through the hallway!" Frances waved her arms around wildly.

Carla blinked thoughtfully "So that's where the others got to"

Lily looked at her watch "hey guys, wanna go down to lunch early so that we can spend extra time getting ready?"

Amber's eye widened, it was the closest thing Lily had ever seen to fear on her face "We need how much time exactly?"

Carla stood up grumpily and started to make her way down to the portrait hole "Okay"

"Um…you do realise that Madame Pomfrey can get rid of those in like, two seconds" Lily said, following her.

Carla nodded "Yeah, but it gives me an excuse to be grumpy and not dance tonight"

She frowned again and rubbed her arm "Damn tennis balls!" **A/N: This is dedicated to my supreme hate of tennis balls. No offence to any tennis players out there.**

The girls came down to the grand hall sat down, and started to eat.

"Whats with the mushrooms?" Molly asked, prodding one.

"They've got garlic on them" Lily noted "I guess the house elves were trying something new"

Amber grinned wickedly as she speared one on her fork and waved it in her cousins face, Tai had just come down with Dave.

"Look Tai, you're favourite" amber grinned. Tai paled and went slightly green.

"Oh…yum…excuse me a minute" He quickly rushed off.

Molly looked at Amber questioningly "Oh, he's allergic to garlic" Amber said, continuing to eat "So have you decided who to go with yet?" she asked Dave.

"Yeah, after many hours of consideration I have decided on, drum roll please….Francesca!"

"Francesca?" Lily asked.

"Well, she's blonde, sporty and a Ravenclaw" he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Uh-huh, and that's all that matters" Amber rolled her eyes.

Dave nodded "Well it's not like my choice was limited. What happened to you?" he asked Carla.

She just shook her head "sometimes charms has its downsides"

"So where's Mel?" Frances asked, taking a gulp from her goblet.

"Last time I saw her she was with that Ravenclaw" Dave said, poking at some lettuce.

"Angel" Lily said "how did he get a name like that anyway?"

Molly shrugged "I think it's his middle name"

They all finished their lunch. The girls then went back to the common room, except Frances who was looking for Mel, and Dave went off to find Tai.

"So when should we start getting ready?" Lily asked. She suddenly spotted Tia, still frantically working "Hi T, whats with all the working?" she said sitting down near her.

Tia didn't even look up "Oh, you know, doing homework, I need time to practise for the game" she flicked through a couple of pages of a text book and scratched something else on the parchment.

Lily gave her an odd look but said nothing. She looked over as the portrait hole opened and a very smug looking Chessie trotted in.

"Hey puppy, what have you done now?" Lily nelt down next to the dog and patted her. Chessie was still looking like she had stolen a pot of gold from a band of leprechauns.

"A-ruff ruff" She barked.

Lily just shook her head and went over to where Amber was finishing cleaning up

"yziddy" Amber muttered, jabbing her wand at the ashes. A couple disappeared. "Aaargh! Yziddy, yziddy, yziddy, yziddy" She pointed vigorously at the mess and the table burst on fire.

Lily grinned and pointed at it "Aquara" she said, a jet of water shot out and calmed the flames.

"Its Ya-zid-ee, yazidee, is that really so difficult!" Carla hit her friend on the back of her head.

* * *

"Hi Remus!" Sirius bounded over to his friend, his eyes practically glowing

"Not you" Remus moaned, banging his head on the table.

"Yes it's me; your most favoritest, nicest, most trustworthy friend whom you are going to tell whom it is that you have feelings for"

"Go bother Peter"

"No, that's James's job"

Remus got up and started to walk out of their dorm and into the halls, naturally, Sirius followed.

"So what does their first name start with?"

"Go away Sirius"

"How about the last letter of their first name…or last name…or any letter in any part of their name!"

"Go away Sirius"

Remus was too busy trying to loose Sirius to notice that he was heading towards the Room of requirement.

Before he could even notice that there was a plain white door with a small glass window that had 'PLOLICE' stamped on it in bold black letters, Sirius had wrenched open the door and shoved him inside.

Inside the room was pitch black Remus felt a pair of hands grab him and try to drag him into a corner.

"Ouch" "Watch it" "Mind the head" "Why does the room have to be so dark?" "Because in plolice shows on those muggle boxes the room is always dark" "I can't find the chair!"

Remus felt himself thumped onto a chair, something cold closed around his arm and waist.

Then a wand was lit and directed at him. Remus winced; the light was shining straight into his eyes. "Okay, now the room becomes only moderately dark, and make your wand a bit fainter"

The room lightened a bit and the wand grew slightly darker, widening its beam to shine on him.

Remus sighed in exasperation when he saw where he was. The room that he was in looked like an interrogation room from an old fashioned black and white police or detective movie.

The walls were plain white, there were two WANTED posters on the wall; one for Lily Evans heart and the other for ice cream. In front of him was a plain wooden desk with an old fashioned lamp on it and some blank parchment and a quill.

The only thing out of place was the fact that he was chained to his chair, rope would have been more suitable.

He looked at the two people in the room and had to choke back his laughter.

Sirius and James were dressed up like old fashioned detectives. They both had light brown trench coats. Sirius's was done up over his robes, but James had on a shirt, vest, tie and trousers underneath his. To complete the look, James also had a bowler hat and Sirius was sticking on a fake moustache.

"Mr. Lupin" Sirius began, trying to sound official, while James shone his wand at Remus. "We are here today for the crime committed last night; we are going to have to ask you a few questions"

"What crime?" Remus asked, still trying to hold back laughter.

"That's what they all say" James said, narrowing his eyes at Remus.

"Now, Mr. Lupin, I believe you when you say that you're not guilty of this crime-"

"-What crime?" Remus interrupted.

"But my friend here, Detective Potter, isn't so sure"

_What happened to police? _Remus wondered.

"Hey" Started James "I thought that I got to be good Cop?"

_Back to the police _Remus rolled his eyes.

"No, I'm good cop you're bad cop, remember, you get to be all suspicious and mean and everybody likes me and I get the girl in the end while you take the criminal to jail" Sirius nodded.

"Girl? What girl?" James asked, looking over at the Lily poster.

"Oh, you know, the beautiful suspect…or the beautiful lady detective, we'll find a girl somewhere, there everywhere!"

"Hmmmm, well I still don't know about this"

"Well the bad cop can get a girl too, both cops of coarse are incredibly handsome and brave"

James nodded "Okay, sounds good" he turned to Remus, going back into character "So, are you going to make it easy and confess or are we going to have to go through with the questions"

"I did it, you can let me go now" Remus said, knowing that it wasn't going to be that easy.

Sirius proved him right "Wait, wait, wait, we need to ask the questions, Detective Potter, keep an eye on the accused"

He casually strolled over to the other side of the desk and picked up the parchment. Remus wondered why he hadn't just turned around.

Sirius peered at the parchment intently "Mr. Lupin, I've been looking at your records and I must say, they are quite impressive"

"Um…Sirius, those are blank" Remus wondered how long this was going to take.

James pointed his wand at Remus threateningly "The accused will not speak until he is asked to"

"Thank you Detective Potter" Sirius continued "As I was saying, your records, Prefect, werewolf, hasn't been on a date since third year, records show that you have a group of three, wonderful, charming, and incredibly handsome and supporting friends, so tell me, why have you retorted to this?"

Remus just blinked at him "What exactly have I done?"

Sirius shook his head sadly and James glowered at him "You have betrayed these wonderful friends with a powerful secret, one that could change lives forever!"

"Who I like?" Remus asked wearily, this game was getting tiring.

"Who the object of your affections is" Sirius said "You have no idea how important this information is to the government, and to us!"

Remus rolled his eyes "just hurry up and interrogate me"

Sirius looked shocked and shook his head "Oh no, we must wait for the Inspector"

_Hmmm, now where did he get that from?_

"Inspector"

The back door that had just appeared opened and a dark haired girl walked out, she was wearing a short black trench coat and an old fashioned hat tilted slightly on her head.

"Thank you Detective Black, I'll take the lead from here" She said smoothly.

"Kitty" Remus stared at his sister blankly "How on earth did they convince you to take part in this play?"

She sat on the edge of the desk and took her hat off, shaking out her hair before answering.

"You really expect me to give up the chance to interrogate my little brother while acting and wearing a great outfit?"

Remus sighed "How many times do I have to remind you that I'm actually a year older than you?"

Kitty ignored him and looked at the paper Sirius was holding "Interesting record Lupin, but records can lie"

"That parchment is blank" Remus reminded them.

Kitty flicked her hair over her shoulder and looked at James "Detective Potter, tell officer Pettigrew to bring in the witness"

"Witness?" Remus asked, this was getting out of hand.

"Hmmm, bet you didn't know that you were being watched" James told him, going over to the back door.

Peter came in, wearing and old fashioned security guard outfit and leading a German Shepard.

Behind him he was pulling a rather amused looking Opal, she was wearing a dark brown skirt, a blouse and a pearl necklace. Her hair had been pinned up and she was wearing black high heels.

"Ahhh, Miss Nightingale, come and take a seat" Sirius said, another wooden chair appeared and Opal sat down, crossing her legs and looking pointedly at Sirius.

Peter went over and stood by the door.

"Okay, in the end one of us gets Kitty and the other gets Opal" Sirius told James.

"There will be no end since this is not a real crime scene and it will be over as soon ad I tell you the 'secret'" Remus groaned.

They all just looked at him blankly "He's hallucinating, is this normal behavior of the accused?" Kitty asked Sirius.

James reached over and took the parchment from Sirius "Maybe this sort of behavior is normal for him"

Remus sighed "Can we just start?"

Kitty nodded "shall we question the accused or the suspect first?"

"The suspect, I just suppose we'd be wasting our time with the accused just now, at least until he's calmed down a bit" Sirius said, turning to Opal.

"Miss Nightingale, would you please tell us your story"

Opal put her hands on her lap and started "Well, ever since I came to work here in Hogwartsville-"

Remus gave a snort of laughter

"I have never once seen my colleague Mr. Lupin show any signs of attraction towards another human. I must say I am not in his level of business yet, my sister Miss A. Nightingale would probably be a better source of information, however she is unavailable at the present time"

Sirius nodded and took some notes.

"I'm afraid that I don't have much, but with the right information I could help narrow the list of suspects down"

Kitty nodded "Thank-you Miss Nightingale. Detective Black, shall we move onto the accused?"

"I suppose, may I question the suspect first?"

Kitty nodded "If you wish"

"Miss Nightingale. Are you incredibly sure that you have not seen any displays of affection or strange behavior by Mr. Lupin?" Sirius questioned.

"Well, once a month he starts to look a bit…worn out, however, I'm sure that this is unimportant" Opal lowered her eyes slightly.

"Indeed" James nodded "Well Mr. Lupin, I think that you know what we want, why don't you just save yourself a lot of trouble and just tell us?"

"No, I'm not telling any of you anything" Remus said stubbornly, knowing that his friends would stop their little game as soon as it was time to get ready for the dance.

"Well why don't you tell us a bit about yourself?" Kitty asked.

Remus just folded his arms and stayed quiet.

"Detective Potter, brighten the interrogation light a bit more, he is going to talk if its that least thing I do" Kitty folded her arms and glared at her brother.

"As long as we are in this room there is no way in the world that I will ever tell any of you anything" Remus said calmly, hoping that they were just going to give up.

"Okay, fine, I didn't want to have to retort to this, but you left me no choice" Kitty said.

"Officer Pettigrew, would you please go and collect Miss Owens, Detective Black, would you please take Mr. Lupin outside. I think that a change of scene is in order"

Sirius unlocked Remus and took him out into the hall "Now things are really going to get serious" he said seriously, but ruining it by laughing "Ha Sirius says things are getting Serious"

Peter came hurrying down the hall with Frances who grinned at Remus "I hope that you have a good lawyer, because I am one of the best"

"What is she talking about?" Remus asked, perplexed, he though that Frances was a nice, sensible girl.

"Don't worry Mr. Lupin" Sirius smiled at Remus as if he was a little boy "Mr. J Potter is arguing your case"

"James?" Remus asked.

Peter opened the door which had now transformed into two large wooden doors. Now he was dressed in a smart black and white pinstriped suit "The court are ready for Mr. R Lupin"

Sirius nodded and led Remus into the room.

The room had also been transformed the carpet was now a plush red, with a dark red strip down the middle. On either side of the room were rows of dark brown seats. The seats were filled with cardboard cutouts of people and Opal and Kitty's old dolls that had been enlarged. Past the seats was a fence, then two dark brown desks.

On the desks were suitcases, sheets of paper and glasses of water. Behind the desks were chairs. The walls were painted a light golden colour and on the very back wall was a tapestry with a lion on it.

A bit in front of the desks the floor was raised up a bit, there was another desk and a grand chair. On one side of the desk was another row of seats.

"Ahhh, Mr. R Lupin, please be seated" Remus looked up at his sister. She was dressed in a dark blue skirt and jacket with black high heels and a black cat collar. Her was done in curls.

"You do realize that judges wear powdered wigs?" Remus checked.

Kitty gave him a look as if to say, "as if I'm going to wear a wig and mess up my hair just before a school dance".

Remus sighed and sat down. James was next to him, he was wearing a black suit with a red tie and spectacles. He was flicking through some blank paper and pretending to read it.

On the other side of the room Frances was opening her suitcase and getting out some more blank paper.

Peter and Sirius were sitting in the row of seats next to the judge's seat and Opal was sitting up the back. She had a camera and a notepad and pen, and was dressed in jeans and a light blue shirt.

Remus sighed; this had gone way past crazy. When he was finally let go he had some friends he needed to book into St Mungo's

"Now, Miss. F Owens. Do you wish to question the suspect?" Kitty said, sitting down.

Remus was already getting used to his friends muddled versions of Television. They definitely needed to study muggle studies more.

"Yes" Frances nodded and James took Remus over to a stand near the judge's chair.

"So, Mr. Lupin, Tell me what you did this morning" Frances said politely.

_What has that got to do with anything? _"Well, I woke up, and finished my potions essay and-"

"Oh did you now?" Frances narrowed her eyes at him and frantically started taking notes.

"Err…May I ask what that has to do with anything?" Remus said, thoroughly confused now.

"Well obviously that means that there is somebody in that class that you want to impress, that automatically eliminates the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs, it also means that this is probably somebody who does well in potions" Frances said, still taking notes.

James looked impressed "Wow, you got all that from him finishing his homework?"

Frances nodded "Yeah, you just need to think intently" she said, tapping her head and accidentally poking herself in the eye.

"Okay, well then I went down to breakfast" Remus continued.

"Who did you sit with?" Frances asked.

"Well I sat with Peter, James, you, Lily and Molly, everyone else was sleeping in, except Tia who was jogging"

"So what did you eat?"

"Toast"

"AH-HAH!" Frances yelled triumphantly.

Everyone in the room jumped.

"I think that it is very clear to all of us now" Frances said, starting to pack up her blank paper.

"Um…Frances, care to explain?" Kitty asked, from where she was filing her nails.

Frances, who was already hallway out the door turned and said "Uh…guys, why is there no one in the hall?"

Kitty gasped in horror "The dance! I completely forgot" The room transformed into a shiny purple, white and blue beauty parlor.

"Out, out, out!" Kitty hurried the boys out of the room and slammed the door shut. As soon as they were out the door disappeared.

Remus shook his head as they walked up to the Gryffindor common room "Saved by the dance"

Sirius turned to Frances "Don't think you're off the hook yet Lupin. Frances, who was it?"

Frances blinked at him "I cant remember, I'm not a lawyer anymore, see, no suit" she motioned towards her robes then shook her head and muttered something about people who don't know the power of suits.

James's face darkened "Suit. I wonder if Lily managed to find another partner."

Frances nodded "Yeah, she did, I don't know who though"

James sighed "Can I just die now?"

Sirius shook his head vigorously "No you can not, you're going with Sophie, and remember; you are not just going with her to make Lily jealous"

"I'm not?" James asked.

"No, because otherwise you will spend the rest of your life inside a chair, that girl is good at transfiguration!

* * *

**A/N: Yay! I got this chapter done quicker than I expected! I wasn't planning to do that much of the interrogation, but it was so much fun to write.**

**Mad Over Mooney and Marauders 4eva49 are probably going to kill me when they find out that I haven't written the dance yet. Sorry guys! Narrows eyes I may have to go into hiding.**

**Anyway, thank you for reading!**

**Midnight Filly **


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter,**** or 'Rudolf the red nosed reindeer' I do however, own Tai, and therefore have the right to change his hair colour- so there Mad Over Mooney!**

* * *

"Owch!"

The cry of pain came from the bathroom and echoed off the walls and tiles.

Lily smiled to herself as she brushed her silky red hair "How ya going in there?" she called in the direction of the bathroom.

Molly grumpily came out, holding a clump of what looked like straw "I think that I took on an impossible task" she said, shaking her head.

"Does that mean your gonna untie me?" an angry voice called from the bathroom.

Molly looked at Lily "I had to tie her to her chair, she would have escaped otherwise"

Mel looked up from the floor where she was straightening her hair with her wand, the smoke was forming a swirling cloud above her head "What exactly are you doing in there?" she said warily, looking at the straw-like stuff.

"I'm brushing Amber's hair" Molly said, exasperated.

"Ohhhhhh" Mel nodded and continued her straightening.

Molly sighed and went back to the bathroom.

Lily continued brushing her hair, trying to decide how she would wear it.

The door opened and Carla came in, now with bruise free arms.

"Hey, so you went to Madame Pomfrey?" Lily asked, still brushing.

Carla glared in the direction of the bathroom "Well I had to, see, it would clash with my dress"

"Well it would, that shade of green and that shade of purple would go horribly together!" Molly called out, her voice sounding echoy.

"Darn, I knew that you should have gone with the blue dress-OWCH!" Amber's voice followed.

Carla grabbed her black brush from the dresser and started brushing her own hair. "Does anyone know where Frances is, I haven't seen her in ages" she asked.

As if on cue, Frances walked in, carrying a suitcase. She placed it on the bed that Lily was sitting on "Case closed" she said, then looked around at Lily, Carla and Mel.

"See, I would have said that before, but there was nowhere to put the case down, so I had to settle to putting it down here, and saying it now" she explained.

Lily shook her head "I don't want to know"

"OWCH!" another shout came from the bathroom.

Carla suddenly paused and pulled a small white thing out of her hair "That's funny" she muttered, looking at it "I could have sworn…" She looked up and saw Lily staring at her, then quickly shoved it into her pocket.

"So, do you guys know where Tai and Dave are?" Lily asked, trying to sound casual.

"Probably getting ready" Mel said, tugging at her hair and trying to get rid of a knot.

Lily looked at the clock on the wall "We have two hours, what guy gets ready two hours before a dance?"

"Dave" Carla, Frances and Mel chorused.

"Ahh" Lily nodded.

"IF YOU DON'T STOP RIPPING MY HAIR OUT I WILL STEAL YOUR POTIONS HOMEWORK AND PROFESSOR SLUGHORN WILL DIE OF SHOCK" Amber screeched.

"So where is Tai?" Lily asked.

"Aaaarrrgggh!" Amber groaned at the mention of her cousins name.

"Oh, he's probably going to g-" Frances started, searching through the wardrobe for her dress.

"-Go and see Katie" Carla said loudly, stomping on Frances's foot.

"Oh that was very inconspicuous" Mel said sarcastically, receiving a glare from Carla.

"What were you going to say?" Lily said curiously, looking at Frances.

"Oh, you know, I love being stamped on, really I do" Frances said, hopping around.

"Where is he really?" Lily frowned at them.

Mel looked up at the clock "Oh, look at the time, we better get dressed" she said, going to the closet that Frances had abandoned and pulled out her long, dark blue, dress.

Lily sighed, and grabbed the aqua dress that Mel tossed her.

* * *

"Come on guys, were gonna be late!" Tia complained.

She had finally come back from the quiddich pitch and changed into her short red dress. Lily was sure that this was the first time that she had seen her black hair in anything but a ponytail.

Lily's usually straight red hair fell in curls and she was wearing her aqua dress and a pair of sandals.

At the last minute she had gotten a date, a member of the Ravenclaw quiddich team, Luke, who was a friend of Angels (Mel's date)

"Perfection takes time" Molly's voice called. She was still 'perfecting' Amber. Molly had quickly rushed out and changed into her blue dress and brushed her hair, but none of them had seen Amber yet.

"Okay. You guys ready?" Molly asked coming out.

"I refuse to come out" Amber said grumpily.

"Amber! You are coming to this dance if I have to drag you" Lily snapped.

"Uuuurrgh, fine!" Amber said, stomping out.

Lily blinked almost not recognising her friend. Instead of her usual mass of tangled dark blonde hair, her hair fell smoothly to her waist. And replacing her usual baggy jeans and old t-shirt, she was wearing the smooth black dress.

Tia glanced into the bathroom "Excuse me, I'm looking for Amber have you seen her?" she asked.

Amber rolled her eyes "Very funny!"

"Good job Molly" Lily said, walking around Amber and inspecting her.

"Can we just go now?" Amber asked, whirling around. Her silky hair whipped around into her face "Aaargh! This stuff is so annoying! Why can't I just be bald?" she grumpily pushed it back.

"Okay let's go" Molly said, they all went out into the common room.

Mel grabbed Lily's arm "Come on, we have to meet Luke and Angel!"

Lily sighed "Great"

"I'm coming with you" Amber said, hurrying after them before everybody could rush off.

The great hall had been transformed. The house tables had disappeared and replaced with small round tables that had cream coloured, silk tablecloths on them. The candles had been replaced with sparkling blue and green orbs that cast a blue-green glow on everything, on the walls were life-size paintings of golden dragons and silver reindeer that moved along the walls, the dragons blowing golden fire and the deer grazing.

In the corners of the room were large green Christmas trees, decorated in the four school colours. Sparkling icicles hung from every spare space.

Amber looked at the large Christmas trees "Whats with the trees? I thought that this was a stress relieving thing"

Lily shook her head, admiring the way her new curls bounced "I guess it's a Christmas cross stress reliever dance"

"Um…why?" Amber glared at a couple of fourth years who were staring at her.

"Well Christmas is in two days" Lily rolled her eyes.

"Oh, well somebody could have mentioned it" Amber sighed.

"Where are they!" Mel asked, standing on her tip toes looking around the room, which didn't make much difference.

Amber sighed "I wonder where Sirius is, I mean, he's usually fairly easy to spot"

"Well he's probably waiting until everyone's here, to make a grand entrance" Lily said, looking around at all of the people.

"So what band is playing?" Mel asked, still searching the room "It better be good"

They looked towards the stage where the band was setting up.

"Oh great" amber said, seeing the sign "The Pixiez, that is such a lame name"

They heard a giggle behind them "Lame name! That rhymes!"

They turned around and saw Frances with a boy that had dark brown curly hair, a bit like her own.

"Hey, where's Remus?" Lily asked.

Frances shrugged "I don't know, he was here, but then he went off somewhere, and now I'm here"

Before anyone could say anything else Frances had dragged the boy off, over to the wall, "Oh look! There are even little green chipmonks!"

"Isn't it Chipmunk?" he asked, sounding slightly confused.

"Uh no!" came the reply.

"Hey, Angel!" Mel said, jumping up and down.

"Heeeey" Lily smiled wanly at Luke.

"I can see I'm not wanted" Amber said, sweeping off "I'll be keeping the punch bowl company"

Mel and Angel disappeared into the crowd. Lily was left to talk to Luke.

"Sooo, what do you think of the walls?" she asked.

"Um… their wallish?" he guessed.

Lily sighed, wondering if it might have been better to come with James. She mentally hit herself for even thinking that, then regretted mentally hitting herself too hard.

"Ow!" Lily complained, rubbing her head.

Luke looked at her "What?"

"Have you ever mentally hit yourself to hard?" she asked. Seeing his blank expression she shook her head "Never mind"

Just as she was beginning to think that this night couldn't possibly get any worse, Tai came in, he was dressed in a black suit and green Tie, and with him was Katie, wearing a short, backless white dress.

Deciding that talking to them was better then standing in silence with someone who thought she was mental she turned to Luke "Do you mind if I go and see my friend…?" she asked.

He nodded absently, heading in the direction of the food. Lily sighed and went over to Katie and Tai.

"You know whats really funny?" Katie was asking "Your name, I mean, Tai? I love Tai food, or maybe we should change your name to Mexican or Chinese, or Pizza or something like that, or you could be Curry! Imagine that, Meet my friend Curry" She laughed and Tai gave a half hearted laugh.

"Curry, ha, yeah" he said, absently gazing at one of the deer.

"Hi Tai, Katie" Lily said coming up to them.

"Oh, hi!" Katie said "How are you, you looked kinda flat when you fell off that broom"

"Uh…Lily" Tai said looking around nervously "I've gotta go" He grabbed Katie's arm and practically yanked it out of its socket dragging her away.

Lily glared in the direction that he was going and gave a frustrated scream. Tai was really beginning to get on her nerves.

* * *

James strolled into the Great Hall, looking around for a certain red head. He was wearing a black suit with a red tie and scowled every time he saw the suit. Stupid suit.

He finally caught sight of bright auburn hair in a sea of blond, brown and black and started heading towards it. He reached out about to tap her on the shoulder when…

"Hi James!"

"Aaaah!" he stopped to avoid the person who had just popped up in front of him and fell over.

"Merlin, your as bad at walking as you are at potions" James looked and saw a pair of black sandals and the hem of a lavender dress. Looking up further he saw the blonde streaked brown hair and hazel eyes of his potions partner.

"That last smoothing potion was pretty bad wasn't it" Sophie said, sitting down on the ground opposite him. "It was a nice shade of orange though"

James sighed, disappointed to have missed Lily "It was meant to be cherry red" he reminded her.

Sophie shrugged "at least it sorta worked" she looked around at the decorations, "I cant wait until Christmas" she said brightly, bursting into 'Rudolf the red nosed reindeer'

James sighed, wondering where Lily was.

* * *

"Arrgh! I hate dances" Amber complained, looking at all of the happy dancing people around her.

She was holding a cup of Pumpkin-rhubarb punch, which tasted worse than it sounded and was a murky dark brown.

"Me too-and this punch is terrible!" Complained the brown haired guy that had been standing at the food table almost as long as he had.

Amber nodded taking another sip "I think that it gets worse the more I drink it"

"Yeah" the boy agreed, re-filling his cup.

"So who did you come with" Amber said, watching the doors, people had stopped pouring in, which meant that Sirius would probably arrive soon.

"Um…some flower…Rose? She has red hair" He asked, taking one of the unidentified leathery things and biting it.

"Aaah, Lily" Amber said, looking around "Stupid Sirius isn't here yet"

"He was planning on making a grand entrance" Remus said, he was wearing a grey suit and black tie, and had been pacing around the food table for ages now "Merlin, where did Frances get to?"

Amber nodded.

Suddenly the doors to the grand hall burst open. Standing at the entrance, in a bright, glowing, amber coloured suit and black tie was Sirius.

"What on earth is he wearing!" Amber practically screeched.

Sirius started to come over to the table, lighting up all around him with a bright, golden glow.

"Help!" Amber looked around frantically, then, spotting the table, ducked under it.

"Hey there Remus!" Sirius said happily, coming up to his friend. Remus squinted at Sirius's bright suit. "You wouldn't happen to know where Kitty is would you?"

"How about your date?" Remus pointed to the table

"Um…I didn't come with the table" Sirius blinked.

"I think he means whats under it" Luke said lazily

"Ohhh, Amber, C'mon out" Sirius said, grinning as if by embarrassing Amber he had achieved world peace.

Amber crawled out grumpily "What are you wearing! I don't know weather to dance with you or hang you from the ceiling!"

"How about both!" Sirius looked at Amber "I like what you've done with your hair, brushed suits you"

Amber rolled her eyes.

Sirius chortled "So, where's Kitty?" he asked brightly.

Amber took her punch cup "Last time I saw her she was dancing with-"

"-Another guy" Remus shook his head "I don't know how they can like someone so vain!"

"Did someone say my name?" Kitty asked breezing up "Sirius you should definitely wear that more often, it is very easy to find you" Her usually sleek, wavy black hair hung straight to her waist and she was wearing a slinky yellow dress.

"Care for a dance?" Sirius asked.

Kitty looked him up and down "Okay, you don't clash with my dress"

They headed off to the dance floor.

Remus rolled his eyes at Amber "Sorry about that" he apologised.

"About what?" Amber asked, confused.

"My sister stealing your partner"

Amber shrugged "No worries, I'll just stay here and be grumpy with Greg"

"Luke" He corrected her.

Amber waved a hand "close enough"

* * *

Lily slipped away from the bright Great Hall and off to the library. She needed some peace and quiet.

The library was silent, a couple of homework addicts were finishing essays and at the back…

"Tai" Lily called, coming towards him.

Tai saw her, then hurriedly ducked behind a bookshelf. Lily filled with rage before she could notice that he was looking a little different.

Lily stormed over to him. She was sick of being avoided all the time, and she wanted him to know it.

She shoved aside the bookshelf to talk to him. Books tumbled onto the ground but she didn't care.

Tai seemed to be frantically doing something with his teeth, but looked up at her.

"You know Tai, if you don't like me then that's fine, I understand, but you could just tell me instead of avoiding me all the time!" Lily exclaimed, her curly hair falling onto her face.

Tai just stood their, gaping at her for a minute "You think that I don't like you?" He finally managed to choke out.

"Yeah" Lily frowned "You're always avoiding me, you went to the dance with Katie, and you keep acting strangely around me" she paused for a moment "You're not gay are you?"

Tai sighed looking at the scattered books "I think that I'm gonna have to tell you, since your gonna get everyone involved and then I'm gonna have to move again and I really don't want to and you already know heaps and I am not gay!" He frowned and folded his arms.

Lily blinked at him curiously "So…whats the big secret?" she asked, still feeling slightly angry.

Tai sighed again "Amber's gonna kill me…and Carla's gonna lecture me…and Frances is gonna run around in circles and blabber about nothing for an hour…and Mel will try to perform another holy ritual, that never works anyway"

"Just tell me!" Lily insisted, really curious now "I mean, how bad could it be, its not like you're a vampire are you?" she joked.

Tai just stared at her with a straight face.

"Tai?" Lily asked cautiously. Suddenly something in her head clicked. He was allergic to garlic, he liked meat, he played quiddich well, which meant flying, he hated crosses, she had only seen him in the sun occasionally…

"**MERLIN! YOU'RE A VAMPIRE?" **Lily screeched.

Tai leapt forward and covered her mouth, then looked over at the group of students "She's just telling me some lines from a book" he said.

He then turned back to Lily "Gee, I didn't know that you'd take it so well"

He let go of her mouth and she took another deep breath to scream. Tai quickly clapped his hand back over her mouth "Lily, I'm still the same person you've known all year! I'm not about to eat you! Amber and Carla and Frances and Mel all know and they don't hate me! Think of all the chances I've had to eat you!"

Lily thought for a moment and pulled his hand off of her mouth again "So how come you can go into the sun and not burst into flame, I think I'd have noticed that" she said, breathing heavily.

Tai looked relieved that she'd stopped yelling "Well I'm really only half a vampire, my mother is one and my dads a human…oh, and Ambers got a little vampire blood in her too. See, my mum was attacked when she was engaged and her mum was only bitten slightly o she has a little vampire blood in her had I have…half"

Lily blinked "So that's why she gets so mad" she looked down at the table where a pencil was sitting. She picked it up. "So If I stabbed you with this" She held it up and Tai stepped back "You would…"

"Turn to ash" Tai sighed wearily.

"Oh, oh, and can you turn into a wolf like Dracula?"

Tai shook his head "No, I can turn into a dingo though"

"A dingo?" Lily asked.

Tai nodded "And a bat…well actually it's a sugar glider which is harmless and eats fruit and…" he trailed off "See, the reason that I was avoiding you was because-"

"-You didn't want to hurt me?" Lily asked.

Tai looked slightly confused "No, I can control that, it was because of James"

Lily blinked "You didn't want to hurt James?"

Tai nodded "yeah, but not in the way you might imagine"

Lily looked confused and Tai shook his head "doesn't matter, lets go back down"

* * *

**A/N: I finally updated! Ducks the rotten fish, chairs and various other things thrown at me I'm sorry! Ducks the grand piano thrown by Mad Over Mooney. **

**I'm really, really sorry that I took so long to update! I have a lot of excuses, none of which you will probably want to hear.**

**Please review! I'll even let you throw stuff at me Ducks the duck thrown by Marauders 4 Eva, who calls out "Heh heh, duck the duck!" **

_**TO MAD OVER MOONY AND IF YOU WANT MARAUDERS 4 EVA: **_I know! I made Tai a vampire, its unimaginative, and boring and I'm sorry! I'm sorry to Linda as well if she's reading this. NOW you can see why I needed Mel's help! And my 'research' was reading Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so really that was helping the story. And I know that you guessed Vampire about a thousand times, but in my defence he I a HALF vampire. I bet you don't have a collage degree on vampires do you MOM! (think of what MOM stands for before you look at me in that confused way)

**Midnight Filly**


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

**Disclaimer:**** I don't own Harry Potter and cant think of any new way to say it.**

* * *

"So who was that guy?" Tia asked Frances as they made their way over to the food.

"Oh, well his name is Joe Sparrow, he has a cousin here called Jack Depp" **A/N: There Frances, happy now?**

"Ohhh, so what happened to Remus?"

"Who?"

Tia sighed, "The guy that you came with?"

"Ohhhhhh, no idea" Frances glanced at the table, where Amber and Luke were still standing.

"I think he came over here but he must have left" Frances shrugged and went over to look at the food.

"And Toadstools, they have the most stupid name, I mean, do you see a toad sitting on a

stool?" Luke shook his head.

"Yeah, I mean, couldn't they think of anything better to call it?" Amber took another sip of the murky brown liquid that was in her cup.

"Well you two seem to be having fun discussing what you hate" Tia said, looking amused.

"I know, the list is practically endless" Amber shook her head in mock wonder.

Frances was peering at her cup, "Do I want to know what this stuff is?"

Luke shook his head, "Better stick to water, this stuff is terrible!" he took another sip.

Tia frowned at him, "If it's so terrible then how come you're drinking it?"

"It really helps make you grumpier" Amber said, she looked up at where the band had finally set up.

All of the members were pixies and were wearing sickeningly typical pixie outfits. The drum kit was made out of large toadstools and they were singing into bright purple flowers. They all had high squeaky voices that sounded even worse when they sung.

"Ugh, this music is terrible; I'm going to get a headache!" Strangely Amber looked happy at this.

That is, she looked happy until Sirius appeared and grabbed her hand "Come on, you're at least dancing with me once!"

Amber pulled her hand away, "No, I hate dancing! Especially to this music!"

Sirius folded his arms and glared at her, "We have to dance! We came together, and I match your name" he motioned towards his bright amber suit.

Amber peered at him for a moment, "Will you help me concoct a horrible potion that will make Slughorn leave a trail of slime wherever he goes?"

Sirius though about it, "Deal!" he then grabbed her hand and dragged her into the crowd.

Dancing near them was Rina Patil; she was wearing a silver necklace with a sapphire cross on it. Amber accidentally bumped against it.

"OWCH!" she screeched, sounding annoyed.

Sirius looked at her sympathetically, "Someone step on your foot?"

Amber quickly nodded, "Why do girls insist on wearing such pointy heels?"

Sirius shrugged and Amber discreetly looked at the raw, red cross that had appeared on her skin, it was already starting to form an ugly purple and yellow bruise around it.

Amber sighed and hoped that Carla still had that ointment that they had found in Australia.

* * *

James gazed off into space as Sophie sung her fith Christmas carol. She seemed to be making up her own now

"On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a big fat juicy lasagne. On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me, two sausage rolls, and a big fat juicy lasagne. Etc."

He glanced over at the door, wondering what was taking Lily so long.

She had left a while ago, just a couple of minutes after Tai…James gasped, realising that she must have gone after Tai.

Sophie nodded "I know that's a lot of lasagne!"

James glanced around "Erm, do you mind if I go and get something…"

Sophie nodded, "Sure, I'm gonna go and find Jordan, she must be here somewhere" she wandered off.

James leapt up and hurried off in the direction of the library. The halls were pretty much deserted since everyone was in the great hall.

He pulled out the Marauders Map and looked, sure enough two dots labelled 'Lily Evans' and 'Tai Groman'.

James pulled out his invisibility cloak and stood by one of the suits of amour muttering "Lily Groman doesn't even sound good, Lily Potter, however…"

* * *

"So when the full moon comes out you can turn into a Vampire?" Lily asked excitedly.

Since she had gotten used to the concept of the guy she had a crush on being a deadly evil creature, she was getting curious.

Tai shook his head, "That's werewolves, and will you stop saying Vampire? I like this school thank you very much and don't want to have to move countries again"

Lily nodded, "I guess they would try to burn you on a stick"

Tai shook his head, exasperated, "No, that witches"

Lily blinked, "Oh yeah" she then turned to her next topic, "So you can turn into a bat, that is so cool, I guess that explains why you like flying"

Tai nodded, "And a dingo, Dracula could turn into a wolf, but I guess a dingo is an Australian variation"

"So are Vampires all really evil and bad and stuff?" Lily looked around the hall, marvelling at how empty it was.

"Well Vampires naturally have a sort of gene that makes them…unpleasant, Amber only has a little Vampire blood and you've seen what she's like. I think I skipped out on that part, as well as the burning in the sun thing"

Lily nodded, "So what else does Amber have?"

"Well if you look closely her teeth are a little pointy, and she has a bad problem with crosses, even worse than I have"

Lily frowned, "Crosses?"

Tai nodded, "Any type of cross, even if you just put your fingers together in a cross, if they make contact with our skin we get a bad burn. For me it's only minor, but Amber has it really badly, she bruises as well as the burn. It kinda varies"

"How about your teeth, the look pretty blunt to me" Lily said, squinting at his mouth.

Tai opened his mouth and two sharp white fangs grew, similar to the white thing that Lily had seen Carla with. He suddenly paused and looked around, "So how is your Care of Magical Creatures homework going?"

Lily looked confused "Um…fine?"

Tai nodded "Okay, well I'd better be going, bye"

"See-ya later" Lily waved, deciding to ask him why he was acting strangely later.

* * *

"See-ya later"

James heard Lily's voice and sighed; now how was he supposed to eavesdrop on them?

He shrugged, deciding that he should just be glad that Lily was away from Suit.

There were footsteps and Suit came around the corner, peering around curiously. He shrugged and turned back around to go to the great hall.

James took a sharp intake of breath and quickly covered his mouth.

He could have sworn that he saw two sharp fangs coming from Suits top jaw.

However when he looked again Suits teeth looked perfectly normal.

James narrowed his eyes in suspicion, deciding to keep a close eye on Suit.

* * *

Lily walked back into the great hall. Coming from the band was a strange high pitched noise, which she soon realised was the singer.

She went over to the food table where Amber and Luke were still standing.

"Hi Luke" She squinted at Ambers teeth "Hey Amber"

Amber frowned at her, then a strange combination of annoyance, anger and shock appeared on her face.

"Merlin, you know!" She half said, half growled.

She quickly snatched Lily's hand and dragged her out to the gardens.

When they were outside and Amber had checked to make sure that nobody else was there she looked at Lily.

"He told you didn't he?"

Lily sighed, guessing that Amber was going to find out anyway, "Yes, he did, and how do you know?"

Amber rolled her eyes, "You've got the I've-just-found-out-that-one-of-my-best-friends-and-her-cousin-are-deadly-mutant-creatures look on your face"

Lily blinked, "Wow, I didn't know that there was such a thing"

Amber stomped her foot and let out a yell of annoyance, "Of coarse he told you, I've been here for three years, but do I tell anyone? NO! But then he comes along for about half a year and just randomly tells you!"

She folded her arms, "So are you going to try and stake me now?"

Lily shook her head, "Tai explained everything, and I've know you for so long, how could something like this suddenly make me hate you?"

Amber sighed, "Well thanks, Carla, Frances and Mel know, but apart from that don't tell anyone else, got it?"

Lily grinned, "I got it"

Amber gave her a half smile, "You think that this is cool don't you?"

Lily nodded vigorously, "If Sirius had known you had vampire blood he would have thought twice about picking those fights with you"

Amber shook her head, "Actually he'd probably try and get me to bite him to get him more girls" she rolled her eyes, "Whatever"

Lily looked up at the moon, "Hey its almost the full moon"

"Yeah, yeah, and its almost dragon breeding season" Amber rolled her eyes.

"That's not what I- ugh, never mind" Lily shook her head and decided to change the subject, "So, you seem to be getting along with Luke better than I am"

Amber nodded, "we hate a lot of the same things, that really brings people together"

"I'm serious!" Lily grinned at her friend, wondering when Sirius was going to pop up and proclaim that actually he was Sirius.

"Please Lil, don't start this up again, I don't need a boyfriend!" Amber groaned.

"Um…I was just saying how it was funny that you get along with someone better than me" Lily looked at her friend curiously.

"Well that's good 'cause there's no way I'm getting a boyfriend"

"Amber you have a boyfriend"

Amber blinked, "What, are you out of your-oh yeah him" Amber grinned sheepishly, "Sorry, automatic reaction"

Lily sighed, "Amber, be honest with me, why are you and Sirius going out? You two have hated each other since third year when you came. And don't give me any of that crap about melting. Melting isn't going to change someone that much"

**//FLASHBACK//**

A thirteen year old Sirius was sitting on a thirteen year old James's desk while they waited for class to start. James was leaning back on his chair and Sirius was laughing his head off at a joke he had just told. Remus was sitting next to them and rolling his eyes while Peter was stressing about something.

At the front of the class was a bright eyed Lily who was chatting animatedly to Molly and not noticing the looks that James kept shooting her. Tia was standing next to them and trying to do a charm that would get the bright red ink off of her robes.

Amber came in, her hair was even more knotted that it was when she was fifteen and hung in her face, similar to the way that Opals did. Her dark olive eyes swept the room, glaring at everyone. She swept up to one of the seats at the back and plonked her books down.

Sirius noticed her come in, "Hey, watch this" he muttered to his friends.

He stood up and strolled near the back.

"You're the new kid right? Its kinda strange, a new girl coming halfway through the year, you'll never catch up."

Amber continued taking her books out of her bad, but shot him a dark green glare.

"I'm the best in this class, brilliant at potions, absolutely brilliant"

James was having a silent fit of laughter at this, while Remus rolled his eyes, hiding a small smile.

Sirius continued, "You're from Australia right? Aren't Australian chicks supposed to be hot and blonde and tan?"

Amber stood up; eye to eye with Sirius she flicked the clump of hair from her eyes. "Well aren't all English people supposed to drink tea and wear suits?" she snapped, her accent a lot stronger that it was in fith year.

Sirius's mouth dropped open, girls never talked back to him; they were usually too awed, even when he was making fun of them. Also they were hardly ever as tall as him, unless they were wearing high heels.

"Well if you're going to be completely racist you may as well go the whole way" Amber crossed her arms and continued glaring at him.

Sirius got his voice back "Remus was right when he said you should have been in Slytherin, your definitely going to be a dark witch some day"

Everybody in the room was watching now. Remus lowered his eyes and fiddled with his wand.

Amber snorted "Oh, so you're going to be the good heroic auror then are you?"

"He could probably bring you down" Lily muttered to Molly and Tia. The sound carried across the room, even though she had spoken quietly.

Amber heard her and her eyes flashed, "Oh yes, I guess you've got all the pretty little girls falling at your feet" she spat at Sirius.

"She's right though, I could take on some pathetic little blonde any day" Sirius said smugly.

Before anyone could do anything, the cauldron nearest Sirius exploded. Everyone screamed and covered there heads with there arms as the sharp metal shattered and scattered everyone around it.

Only a couple of smaller pieces reached Lily, stinging her face and leaving small red marks. Molly had a small gash on her face and Tia, with her great quiddich reflexes had dived under a table.

Remus and Peter had some cuts on their neck and arms and James had some pieces of metal caught in his hair.

Sirius and Amber were the worst. Their entire fronts were covered with metal and cuts, and blood was dripping down their robes and staining the floor.

Everyone was rushed to the hospital wing and fixed up.

The class was told that Amber had a little anger problem and had trouble controlling her temper.

Practically everyone had hated her for weeks though, and Sirius was brought down a few notches.

**//END FLASHBACK//**

Amber let out a long sigh "Well-" she started, but they were interrupted by a flash of red light from a nearby bench.

Sitting on it was a boy with bright blonde hair with a large red mark across his face who was trying to calm down a hysterical girl with black hair who was wearing a light green dress.

"You said you would never like her! What happened to not dating friends!" she sobbed.

Amber whirled around and started heading back into the castle "Ugh that sounds way too much like a certain stepmother I know!"

Lily gave a frustrated groan. She had been so close to finding out one of the mysteries that had been haunting her this year.

* * *

James rushed back into the dance, still slightly unnerved by what he had seen. If Tai turned out to be dangerous and hurt Lily…He shook his head.

Sophie popped up next to him again, this time with a boy who had longish black hair and dark brown eyes.

"Hey James, This is Jack Depp, Joe Sparrows cousin, you don't mind If we dance for a while?"

James blinked "Uhhh"

"Okay good, bye" Sophie said brightly, bouncing off.

James sighed he walked over to one of the tables where Remus was sitting and gazing off into the distance.

"Hi" James gloomily flopped next to him.

Remus grunted in response.

Soon they were joined by a grumpy looking Peter, "Well she's ditched me" he announced. They all looked over at where Elizabeth was dancing with some boy that had light brown hair.

"Join the club" James sighed, pointing to Sophie and Frances.

Peter brightened up considerably "Oh good, you guys were ditched too!"

Sirius bounced over to them, beaming. "Technically I was ditched too, Ambers off somewhere talking to Lily" Strangely he seemed very pleased about this.

"Why are you so happy?" James asked, glaring, slightly nervously at the door where Tai had just come in and started talking to Katie.

Sirius's grin grew wider, if that was possible, "Guess who I just got to dance with me?" he asked smugly.

They all looked over to where Jordan was grumpily talking to Mel.

Remus sighed, "It doesn't count if you jinxed her Padfoot"

Sirius gave a snort of laughter, "Of coarse it does!"

Kitty appeared at his shoulder, "Hey Sirius, I'm trying to get some Slytherins attention and I need some light" She motioned towards his glowing suit, "their sitting in this really dark little corner".

Ignoring Remus's glare Sirius nodded, "Sure, but why would you want to get the attention of one of them?"

Kitty tossed back her hair, "Well I'm proving to a rather un-believing Opal that I can"

"I didn't actually mean that you had to go and get their attention, I was trying to say that not everybody-" Opal walked up next to Kitty wearing a light blue dress.

"-Come on" Kitty dragged the two of them off.

Remus sighed, "How am I supposed to be the strong big brother if my little sister is perfectly capable of looking after herself and bossing everyone around?"

He glanced over at James and Peter who were looking at him with odd expressions on their faces.

"Gee Remus, wouldn't you like some punch?" James said, holding out a cup.

"It would be a lot better without that truth potion you just poured in" Remus rolled his eyes, wondering how stupid his friends though he was.

"Darn!" James grumbled.

"Hey guys" Carla came and flopped into a chair, "Everyone else is dancing!"

James looked out glumly at the crowd again "We've noticed"

Peter looked over at where Jordan and Mel were, "You could talk to them" he said, pointing.

Carla shook her head, "If I do then Angels friends keep coming over and shooting me looks" she made a face, "I'm seriously thinking about swearing off guys forever, or I guess I could just become an evil dark lord and vaporise any that came within ten meters of me"

Remus nodded, "That could work"

James shook his head, "What if you become a waitress or something?"

Carla shrugged, "I'll work somewhere that only girls go to"

Peter nodded, "Good luck with that"

James considered it, "How about some place really girlie, like-"

"-Shit" Carla jumped up, "See ya guys, I-cant-even-do-a-simple-summoning-charm is coming"

She rushed off muttering, "Stupid dateless guys, I should have gotten a partner"

James sighed, "I think I'm gonna go soon, I'm tired and I think that my date has deserted me"

"Not to mention that the only reason you came to the dance is standing outside the window" Remus noted, looking at where Lily and Amber were chatting a few meters away from a window near the guys.

Peter glanced over through the crowd, "I'm going to go and talk to Mel and Angel" he said, getting up, "It's too depressing over here"

* * *

Tia fiddled with a piece of her dark hair as she sat by herself at one of the tables.

She gave an annoyed huff and threw it back behind her shoulder, wondering why she had let Lily convince her to wear it out.

With a slightly annoyed look at the dance floor where Jackson was dancing with a girl who had long dark red hair, she stood up and walked aimlessly around, looking for somebody that she knew.

Spotting Remus and James sitting at a table and both ogling out of a nearby window, she started walking towards them.

She grinned at James, guessing that the thing he was staring at was Lily; a quick glance confirmed her answer as she saw Amber and Lily talking outside.

For a moment she considered going outside, but since the boys were closer she went over to them.

Tia paused a couple of steps in front of them, waiting for one of them to notice her, but they were too busy looking out the window.

She frowned, looking at Remus and wondering who he was staring at, he and Lily had been dating for a couple of months in third year, so it couldn't be her, and the only other person out there was…

Tia let out a loud shriek, startling some of the people nearby and breaking Remus and James out of their trance.

Remus took one look at her and glanced at James, "Hey, is that Tai sneaking suspiciously out of the great hall?" he asked, hoping that James wouldn't look over to where Tai was standing and talking to Dave.

"Really? I'll be back" James rushed off to the entrance and Remus turned to Tia, with a slightly dark look on his face.

Tia started jumping up and down, a strange act for her since she was usually very calm and composed. "I know who you li-ike, I know who you li-ike" she started chanting.

Remus shook his head "Are we in second year Antonia?"

Tia stopped jumping "No, your right" She smoothed her dress and pushed her hair back. She then glanced out the window where the light from the dance was reflecting from Ambers hair.

"So Remus, tell me, how long have you liked Amber?"

He looked around quickly as if Sirius and Peter were standing near him recording his every sound, which was exactly what they were doing, except they had mixed the spell up and were being attacked by streamers that seemed to have grown teeth and were in no condition to be listening to him.

"Keep your voice down, people could hear you!" he hissed.

Tia sighed, "Okay, then lets call her…the bird"

Remus shook his head, "Too obvious"

"The blonde devil?" Tia tried again.

Remus shook his head again, "No, also too obvious"

"Spinach and jam?" Tia asked, saying the first thing that popped into her head.

Remus gave her a funny look, "No, that's just plain stupid" he paused, "Besides, it's already taken"

"Case 48?" Tia said, sounding exasperated.

Remus nodded, "That'll do"

Tia blinked, "Uh…Okaaay. So how long have you like Case 48?"

Remus sighed, "Since she came, in third year. Well actually at first I hated her, I thought that he was supposed to be in Slytherin and her temper…" he shook his head, "Anyway, then I saw her stand up for Molly that time, and she started to seem more like someone who spoke her mind a lot, rather than some sort of monster."

Tia nodded, "I guess her sister becoming friends with Kitty helped a bit too"

Remus nodded, "Yeah" he looked over to where Peter and Sirius were still being attacked, "I'd better go help those two"

Tia glanced towards the dance floor, "I'm gonna go glare at Jackson until he pays attention to me" she said, walking off.

* * *

Remus, James and Peter slowly made their way back to the common room. They had gotten completely bored and decided to go to bed.

Sirius was still in the great hall, dancing.

"I'm going to go brush my teeth" Remus said, going into the bathroom.

James and Peter nodded, crawling into bed without even bothering to change. When Remus went into the bathroom they quietly gave each other a hi-five.

They pretended to fall asleep to wait until Sirius came up to join them.

Remus came out of the bathroom and changed, then got into bed.

"Hey Remus" James said with a grin, "Are you a boy or a girl?"

Remus stared at him, "A boy" he said slowly, looking confused.

Peter rolled his eyes "Ask something a little more…secretive"

James sighed "Fine, Remus what did you really get on that potions essay?"

Remus looked like he was about to say the answer that he had told them before, E, but instead he said "P."

Peter and James gasped with delight.

Remus gasped in horror "The toothpaste!" he glared at them.

Sirius burst into the room, panting, "Remus-who-do-you-like" he panted.

Remus stuffed his fist into his mouth, but the word Amber was still distinguishable.

* * *

**A/N: ****Don't you just love cliff hangers? ducks the various objects thrown. Well at least I updated sooner this time! **

**Nothing else to say except, REVIEW!!!!**

**Midnight Filly. **


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter an any relating characters are not mine, Most other characters are mine, however some don't really belong to me since their my friends, although I can make them do whatever I want in this story which is ****sad for them. I don't know whether I belong to me, hopefully I do. Hmm, this is a pretty long disclaimer that isn't really to the point, I really just wanted more words. **

* * *

Sirius was so shocked that he forgot for a moment that he didn't actually like Amber.

"WHAT?" he roared angrily, **"You like my girlfriend, the girl that I am dating?"**

He paused for a moment, thinking about what he had just said. His face suddenly filled with glee.

"HA! You like someone that _I'm _going out with. I have something that you want!" He started dancing gleefully around the room chanting, "Remus likes my girlfriend, Remus likes my girlfriend"

"_Amber_?" James asked, looking astonished, "Amber with the…" He waved wildly around his head.

"The same Amber with the…" Peter made a stabbing motion with his wand.

Remus was looking like he had swallowed a rock, "See, this is the reason that I didn't tell you"

James put a reassuring look on his face, "Don't worry Moony, we support this"

Remus smiled at him and looked over at Sirius.

James turned to Peter and mouthed, "Is he insane?"

Peter nodded "Probably" he mouthed back.

"So do you think that I might have a chance with her?" Remus asked hopefully.

Peter and James nodded; smiling at him, then wildly shook their heads the moment he looked away.

"Um, excuse me?" Sirius waved, "Helooo, my _girlfriend_! Emphases on the word MY"

Remus looked at him "Oh yeah, you know her, what do you think?"

"That she's my girlfriend!" Sirius exclaimed.

"Well that's probably not going to last very long" Peter reasoned, "I mean, your _Sirius_!"

Sirius smiled and nodded, "I am indeed" he sat down on his bed, "Okay, I'll ask her"

He slipped under the covers, still fully dressed and rolled over so that his back was too them. He rolled back, "I think that you're crazy by the way."

* * *

"Does she even know that she should not be wearing that shade of pink?" Kitty asked as she and Opal made their way back to the common room after the dance.

"Well maybe she ju-" Opal started.

"-Its so obvious that she is just copying me" Kitty shook her head, then looked up and saw Regulus Black walking towards them, glaring at her.

Kitty smirked at him and turned back to Opal, "Some people really need to accept that they just can't be me"

"Hmmm…" Opal had stopped listening and was now looking at one of the tapestries on the wall.

"And did you see Dave and his little date with Tai and Katie, _total_ hair clash; they should not be walking together!"

There was a thud, a small shriek, the rustle of clothing and another thud and Kitty realised that Opal wasn't walking next to her anymore. She turned around and saw her friend in a heap on the floor.

"Sorry" Regulus winced, "I wasn't really watching where I was going".

Kitty expected him to glare at her, but his eyes stayed on Opal.

"Here" he offered Opal his hand to help her up.

Opal took his hand, and Kitty let out a huge gasp "NO!"

She shoved Regulus so that he fell over, grabbed Opals hand and took off.

"Kitty!" Opal panted, after she had recovered from the shock of being dragged off.

She snatched her hand back and returned to normal walking pace, "What on earth was that about?"

Kitty went back to walking and smoothed her hair back, "Well I don't have to worry about you liking Remus anymore"

Opal blinked, "Huh?"

Kitty dragged Opal into the common room and pointed to her brother, who was just walking out of the boy's dorm.

"Talk to him!" she commanded.

Opal gave her a funny look, but went over to him anyway.

"Hey Remus, sorry about the interrogation thing before, Kitty insisted and-" She cut off as Kitty dragged her off again.

Remus, who was used to having his sister drag people off mid sentence, just shrugged.

"Will you stop doing that!" Opal asked, rubbing her arm, sounding annoyed.

"See, you can talk to him now" Kitty smiled smugly, "Looks like both Nightingales have a thing for Blacks"

Opal rolled her eyes "I don't know what you're talking about, I've never even spoken to any of the Blacks before, and there is no way Amber likes Sirius"

Kitty looked at her, puzzled, "Of course she likes him, their going out aren't they?"

A suspicious look crossed Opals face "Hmmm"

* * *

James strided purposefully along, taking deep breaths. His broom clutched firmly in his hand; he was completely ready for the quiddich match that day, against Ravenclaw.

Sirius was walking beside him, sporting a red and gold scarf and still chuckling about the night before.

"I mean, it is a freaky coincidence or what? There are like, a thousand girls in the school-

"

"Highly unlikely, since there are only about a thousand students at the school" Said a rather grumpy sounding Remus, who was seriously regretting brushing his teeth last night.

James sighed, exasperated, couldn't his friends see that he was trying to get into quiddich mode?

"Okay, I hereby eliminate all talk on Nightingales" hopefully that would do it.

"But what if we want to talk about Opal?" Peter asked curiously, from Remus's side.

"Yeah, or the birdie things?" Sirius grinned.

"NO! Can't you see that I am in a very delicate stage? Not only do I want to win the cup but captain status!"

"I don't think that you have much to worry about, Ravenclaws seeker is pretty pathetic, and Tia has been looking…bedraggled lately" Remus said comfortingly.

"Who uses the word bedraggled?" Sirius asked, receiving a glare from Remus.

"Plenty of people" Kitty said matter of factly, coming up next to them with Opal.

"Oh, you better go away Opal; we're not aloud to speak to you!" Sirius said.

"I said talk about not to, and I didn't mean-oh never mind" James said wearily.

Kitty rolled her eyes and she and Opal picked up their walk to pass the boys.

They approached the Quiddich stadium and Remus and Peter went off to find seats. Sirius went up to the commentary stand and James, practically hyperventilating, went to the changing rooms.

"Hey James" Rina said, clipping some of the bent twigs off her broom.

James stared at her incredulity, how could she be so calm! He blinked, realising something was missing, usually there was someone panicking with him…

"Where's Tia?"

Rina shrugged and looked around, "I don't know, it's not like her to be late"

Just as she had finished talking Tia rushed in, her hair was in mattered tangles hanging around her face and there were large purple bags under her eyes.

"You okay T?" James asked; concerned about how…un-together she looked.

Tia waved a hand tiredly, "robes…" she muttered vaguely.

James nodded, then realised that he had stopped worrying for a few seconds, and started to worry even more.

* * *

"And it is an incredibly beautiful day for quiddich, the sun is shining, the air is crisp, and GIFFINDOR IS SO GONNA WHIP RAVENCLAW INNA SHAPE!"

Kitty snatched the magical microphone away from a screaming Sirius.

"The best thing about this match is that both houses are equally matched, so we can be in suspense the whole time!" She smiled and tossed her shiny black hair back, "I look totally hot in suspense"

Professor McGonagall sighed, what on earth had provoked her into hiring these two for commentary?

"You only need to commentate the match" She sighed tiredly, "The match!"

"But Professor isn't it much more professional to commentate before, during and after the match?" Kitty asked, struggling to keep the microphone away from Sirius.

Professor McGonagall just sighed again; it was too tiring arguing with these two.

"Extra pressure is on Gryffindor teams James Potter and Antonia Longwell, since both of them are competing for the title of quiddich captain for next year" Sirius said cheerfully, finally getting the microphone back.

Kitty prodded him, "Shhh, they can hear you!"

Sirius just beamed at her, "I know!"

He went back to his commentary, "There are probably some people competing in Ravenclaw too, but I don't really talk to Ravenclarians, so I wouldn't know, Oh, maybe it'll be Tai. That would be cool 'cause I could be all, yeah, I know the quiddich captians of Gryffindor and Ravenclaw"

Kitty looked at him, "Did you have coffee today?"

* * *

James stood down on the quiddich field, nervously playing with his broom; Sirius' commentary was definitely not helping.

He looked at the Ravenclaw team walking out onto the field. Tai looked perfectly calm. James felt a strong surge of hate, he was going to pummel that little goody two shoes, good little Tai, who everyone likes and never gets into trouble.

The captians shook hands, and then the teams took off.

As James flew into the sky he saw a couple of dark clouds coming through the clear sky and approaching the quiddich match.

He sighed, and then went to go and hover above the match, keeping a look out for the snitch.

* * *

Kitty was watching Opal closely with a confused look on her face.

"Whats up?" Sirius asked. Only Kitty could hear, since Professor McGonagall had confiscated their microphones.

Kitty frowned, "Notice anything weird about Opal?"

Sirius looked over at the girl. She seemed exactly the same as always to him.

"Erm…no?"

Kitty sighed, "Look at who's sitting next to her"

Sirius looked and saw Remus.

"Yeah…I still don't get it" he said, looking confused.

Kitty sighed, once again marvelling the stupidity of boys, "She isn't staring at Remus like she always is when he's somewhere near"

Sirius peered closer, and saw that she was right, "Wow, it's like she almost doesn't know that he's there!"

While Kitty and Sirius were watching Opal, Amber and Lily were watching them.

"Who do you think they're staring at?" Amber asked, fiddling with her annoyingly neat hair.

Lily shrugged, "Maybe Remus?" she asked, glancing at him.

"Nah, who would want to look at him?" Amber asked.

Lily just shook her head; it was much easier than arguing.

Amber sighed noisily, "The match is so boring without Kitty and Sirius' commentary! I can't even remember why I came before they got the job"

"To watch the match maybe?" Lily was getting bored too, her gaze wandered around the crowed, looking at what people were wearing.

Amber found a scrap piece of paper in her pocket; she ripped some pieces off, scrunched them up and started pelting Remus with them.

"Aaaah! Hey!" Remus put his arms over his head to protect himself.

Amber sighed, "You're doing it all wrong! You're supposed to create some exciting spell to fight back against me, and make this stupid match more interesting!"

Remus shook his head, "Watch the match Amber"

Amber sighed, and slumped back in her seat, "You're boring" she glanced around, trying to find another helpless victim.

* * *

James was peering out over the match when rain started spattering down.

He swiped the water out of his eyes and looked up, annoyed. This proved to be a very stupid thing to do, since the rain got in his eyes.

He blinked the water out, but things were still a little blurry. He suddenly remembered the game and quickly scanned the field for the snitch.

He thought he saw a flash down by the Ravenclaw goalpost, and swooped down. There was a shout behind him.

"James? I can't see? You need a bludger over there?" One of the beaters called to him. His glasses were fogging up and spattered with rain, and he was just hovering, holding his bat loosely.

James stopped and scratched his ear, looking back confused.

The beater took that as a sign and whacked a bludger in that direction then sped off across the field.

James watched as the bludger zoomed forwards, he quickly avoided it.

Unfortunately Tai, who was hovering behind James guarding the goal, had been looking in the other direction, the bludger hit him in the stomach and he shot off of his broom.

James watched Tai hurtling towards the ground. He was the only on close enough to do anything.

Sirius was saying something into the microphone; somehow he had gotten it back. But James couldn't hear it because of the strange ringing in his ears.

For a moment he thought that he should probably move, he should probably go and catch Tai, but he found himself frozen, he couldn't move.

The thought that kept going round his head was, _if Tai is gone then Lily may like me. _Tai finally hit the ground. Through the dark rain and haze James saw blood, bright against the dark grass.

"Oh shit!" James swore, coming out of his trance. What if Tai was dead, what if his thinking had killed him?

James pulled his broom down and shot towards the ground, almost as fast as Tai had. He could hear Kitty squealing into the microphone, "Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, is he dead? Has Potter gone mad or something?"

James quickly pulled up and leapt off of his broom. He tumbled over a couple of times then hurried over to where Tai was lying.

He was lying flat on his back, on arm was twisted in a strange position, and his mouth was bleeding, a couple of teeth that had been knocked out.

James came a little closer. His heart gave a jolt and he thought that it had stopped. Tais head had been knocked back, at an irregular angle and there was a large gash across his neck, blood was completely covering his front. It looked like he had fallen on his head. Tai was dead.

James put a hand to his stomach, feeling as if he was about to throw up.

He started hyperventilating, _I killed someone, I killed someone, _he thought.

He saw a figure jump from the stands and rush over, a pretty brave, or stupid thing to do since the stands were about five meters from the ground. Her blonde hair streaming out behind her.

_Oh__ no, now Ambers gonna kill me! _James froze as the figure came up to him and slapped him across the face.

"You idiot! Why on earth didn't you do something? Were you maybe thinking that he would land on a magical cloud?" the girl yelled at him.

James blinked, that wasn't Amber's voice. He squinted through the rain and saw Opal, he marvelled over how different she looked when she was mad, her blonde hair looked darker since it was wet from the rain and was back from her face, her dark green eyes almost had a yellow tinge to them…

"I-Opal he's dead" James sobbed, he hadn't even been aware that he'd been crying until then, the tears mixing with the rain.

Opal glanced at Tai, looking alarmed at first, but then relaxing when she saw him, which was a strange reaction for someone who was looking at their cousin with their head half ripped off.

She looked up and saw some other figures approaching, "We'd better get him out of here" she said, waving her wand and summoning a stretcher.

She strode off, "I'm taking him to the hospital wing" She called, and the crowd quickly moved aside.

Opal turned, then pulled his robes over his head, so that nobody could see it.

"Opal!" James hurried after her, swiping the water off of his face and feeling very confused, "Um, did you see his head, hes dead."

Opal ignored him and continued to stride along ahead.

They reached the hospital wing and Madame Pomfrey bustled over. "Oh he is a mess" she complained, looking at his arm and mouth, she pulled back the robes covering his head and gasped in horror, "Oh my…"

"This is Tai Groman" Opal said, as if that explained everything. Apparently it did, since Madame Pomfrey relaxed.

"Oh, alright then, put him over there on that bed and I'll get the curtains"

Opal put her cousin down on the bed and then sat down next to it. She looked up at James, "I guess I have to explain to you?"

James just nodded, too confused by what had just happened for words. Madame Pomfrey came back and set up the curtains which patients usually changed behind.

"So why are we not worried that he dead?" James said, trying to sound casual, but failing.

"Oh, hes not dead" Opal said, sounding completely calm.

James raised his eyebrows, "His head has been-"

"-I know" Opal cut in, "He would definitely be dead if he was human, fortunately hes not"

James stared at her blankly.

Opal pointed to the bed, "Look he's fine"

James looked over and jumped when he saw the veins, bone and skin on Tais neck, slowly re-joining.

"Oh, now that's just gross" James winced, glad that he had skipped breakfast that morning.

"See, he's half vampire" Opal explained.

James froze for a moment, taking it in, and then gasped, "I knew he was evil!"

Opal shook her head, "He skipped out on the evil part"

James paused for a moment. "But how? I mean- and he doesn't even look like a vampire! Don't they have yellow eyes and black hair?"

Opal shrugged, "He skipped that too"

She sighed, "Amber and I have some vampire blood in us too, not much, but still, that's why she's so moody all the time, she also has a little problem with crosses"

James thought for a moment, "Is that why she got so freaked that time we used holy water in potions?"

Opal nodded. James frowned. "But I haven't noticed any of that stuff around you"

Opal shook her head, "Yeah, well unlike Amber and even Tai, I can turn into a full fledged Vampire, he can only get fangs and yellow eyes, that's the reason I have to be so calm and quiet all the time. If I get mad I can seriously hurt someone"

"But I thought you said that he had more vampires in him than you?" James asked.

Opal nodded again, "He does, he has everything except looking like a vampire and bursting into flame in the sunlight"

James nodded, "I probably would have noticed that"

"That's also the reason he's so nice and everything, he completely skipped the gene for meanness"

James sighed, "Oh that's good, if it had been real then I would be seriously scared, nobody is that perfect" **A/N: (To Mad Over Mooney and Marauders 4eva49) Well maybe somebody…**

"So if he bit me would I turn into a vamp?" James asked curiously.

Opal sighed, "I guess…"

"That would be so cool!-" James started, Opal cut him off.

"Yes, very cool to be a social outcast who can turn into a vicious creature and harm innocent people"

James muttered something indistinctive, "So what are we going to tell everyone?"

* * *

"He's completely fine? From a fall that far?" Sirius asked disbelievingly

"It was raining" James said, as if that explained everything.

Opal sighed, for some of the smartest people in the school these guys acted really dumb sometimes.

"You know Madame Pomfrey, she can heal anything" She said calmly.

"Right, but not even a scratch?" Sirius looked down at Tai's completely un-maimed skin.

"He has a good immune system" Opal explained.

Kitty frowned slightly, something still wasn't right; she was sure that she saw Tai's head practically ripped off.

Amber stormed in, followed by Remus and Lily, who looked like they were about to throw up.

She went up to James and whacked him across the face, strangely in almost exactly the same way Opal had.

She then went and looked at Tai, seemed satisfied with what she saw, and turned and left the hospital wing.

"Well, nice of her to appear" Sirius muttered, wondering why she wasn't more concerned for her cousin.

"She's gone to help her friends pack, their leaving in about an hour, and Frances has three bag loads of cloths, but has lost her bags" Lily said flatly.

She walked over to Tai and jumped, obviously expecting to see him…not in perfect condition.

"He…ah…" She stammered.

"I know!" Sirius grumbled, he then stormed out of the hospital wing, still slightly mad at his best friend, why had James just sat there?

He went into the common room, where Tia was sitting, still in her quiddich robes, hurriedly scribbling down her homework.

"Didn't you finish that yesterday?" Sirius asked.

Tia looked at him tiredly, "That was my catch-up work, now I'm doing my homework. The defence against the dark arts essay on werewolves"

Sirius glanced at the essay, "Uh, Tia, that was on warewolves, sounds the same but their very different"

Tia calmly picked up her piece of paper and shredded it.

"I'm sure that you'll be able to write another one and-"

"_How does he do it?_" Tia practically screeched, shoving the large textbook onto the floor, sending stray scraps of paper flying.

Sirius blinked, "Uh…"

"_He's good at quiddich, practically top of the class, and seems to have all of the free time in the world_!"

She started flinging paper, quills and anything else in reach onto the floor.

"Tia-" Sirius started.

She turned her attention to flinging things at him, "_Don't call me that! When I'm Tia I can either be good a quiddich or schoolwork never both!"_

Sirius was getting very scared now, he ducked up the stairs and into the boys dormitory where she couldn't get him.

* * *

"Hey, isn't this mine?" "I cant find my hairbrush" "Check the bathroom" "I found one!"

The girls dorm was in chaos when Lily had finally gotten past Tia's little freak out.

There was a pile of bags by the door, Frances and Mel were still packing.

"Why didn't you pack earlier?" Lily asked as the frantic girl rushed past her to grab a shirt, that had somehow found its way to one of the ceiling fans.

"I was preoccupied!" came the reply.

"But don't you leave in like, ten minutes?" Lily asked.

Carla, who was leaning against one of the bed posts, gave her a withering glance, "Well I'm glad that somebody remembered"

"I swear that you said twenty minutes!" Mel said, trying to pull a pair of jeans away from Molly's dog.

"I said that in twenty minutes we would be out of here!" Carla sighed grumpily, "I'm gonna go and check on Dave"

"Don't mind her, she's in a bad mood" Mel told Lily, inspecting her now chewed up jeans. She shrugged and shoved them into her bag.

After a while they were finally done, they came down into the common room where Molly was trying to comfort Tia.

"Don't worry, I'm sure that you won't get expelled" She said, patting Tia on the shoulder.

Tia, who had been sitting with her face in her hands, sat up abruptly, "I could get expelled?"

The portrait hole opened and Carla, Dave, and Tai entered.

"Ten minutes I said. Ten!" Carla was ranting.

"Well don't blame us for not listening! Your terrible at maths!" Dave said, then, seeing her face he raced over to the fireplace.

Sirius came down from the boy's dorm looking very grumpy.

"I just got lectured for be insensitive to Tia" he grumbled.

"Don't call me that!"

"Really, by who?" Amber asked, still trying to zip up one of Frances' bags.

"Remus, he can be really scary when he wants to be!"

Amber laughed, "You were scared of Remus? Whats he gonna do, be smart at you?"

"Easy for you to say" Sirius scoffed, "He as a crush on you"

* * *

**I love cliff-hangers! Also since I haven't updated in ages I thought that it would be a good way to make you all hate me even more! I'm really sorry for not updating sooner! The next one will not take this long! I am definitely going to finish this story! Wow, I have used a lot of exclamation marks! Please review…although I probably don't deserve it…You have permission to shout at me.**

**Happy Birthday Mad Over Mooney! (for yesterday)**

**Midnight Filly **


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